Tales of D'Hoffryn…
by regertz
Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his  well, his people's  exploits with some old friends…
1. Chapter 1

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

Prologue:

The tranquil peace and utter calm of Hell's main drag on a Saturday night was shattered…To the stunned relief of those undergoing that specific torment…One former world class playboy looking up from his game of checkers with his grandmother's surly fright of a cousin… "Are you cheatin' again, boy?..." she poked at him for the one hundred and fifth billionth time with her cane as he rose…The imps who would normally have forced him to resume too distracted to prevent him from observing a moment's blessed escape… "There'll be no sex for you tonight!..." the cousin bellowed, waving cane at her partner…

"Where you goin', baby…?" an imp in the form of Pat Buchanan in Nazi storm trooper outfit pulled at the arm of the recently deceased gorgeous if murderous ex-film starlet he been assigned to as mate for eternity as she too took a moment's blessed advantage of the uproar…

"I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer!...Demons and evildoers beware!..." howls, screams from various terrified creatures of all shapes and sizes running down the street in panic…From what appeared to be a rather agitated if slight and lovely young blonde woman in white blouse and beige slacks, waving a sharpened stick in fury…

She pausing to survey the scene…Waving her stake at several of the tormented suffering through another hideously dull Saturday night in Hell…Where every night is Saturday…Saturday in Bug Tussel's dullest neighborhood…Including the playboy and former movie starlet, both hoping against hope that this ruckus would last a few divine minutes…

"Don't fear, if you have souls and aren't evil!…" the figure addressed the group watching her… "I'm the Slayer, here to protect you…But if you're demonic or humanly evil…You're toast!..."

Well that pretty much gets us all…The starlet thought…

Still dying for a few hours at this crazed bitch's hands would get me out of Saturday night sex with Patty boy…

"Unless you're ready to fight your way to redemption!..." the figure continued… "I can only inspire your quest of course with my noble spirit…You must face hideous torments but you will win your soul back or face me!..." she slashed at a few hulking creatures who tried to approach her…Bearing nets…Which several tried to throw over her…She slashing at them, then throwing them off her… "Back, demons…Here's the deal…You go for redemption and save your souls or I stake you all!…"

A weary-looking figure in collared shirt, v-necked sweater, slacks, and bow-tie, but lacking any trace of skin appeared, surrounded by a bevy of Buffies identical in face and form to the one currently ranting…

"Warren Mears!..." the self-proclaimed Slayer cried… "Prepare to redeem or go to prison, human evildoer…"

"Yeah, yeah…" Mears sighed… "Look Buffy, how about we have a nice bowl of vanilla ice cream…" A demurely smiling Buffy in skin-tight silk dress stepped forward, bearing bowl… "Laced…Er, covered with these nice sprinkles…" he indicated the "sprinkles"…Several dozen tablets of various colors…Which the Buffy offering the bowl presented with a flourish… "And talk over old times for a bit…In a nice quiet place I know…"

"You crafty human evildoer…" the one addressed narrowly eyed him… "You mean to try and kill me again like the last time we met…"

"God, that was great, wasn't it…" Mears, fondly…Shaking head in wonder… "I almost pulled it off…No funny business, no dumb world conquest speech, just good ole fashioned hot lead…"

"You're under arrest, Evildoer…Now come quietly or…"

"Right after you have some of this delicious ice cream…Look, I'm having some…" Mears took a bowl…Minus 'sprinkles'…"And I know you love vanilla…It's so you…"

"I…Think…I like vanilla…" she eyed the bowl…Suspiciously…

"Then let good ole Mr. Giles…" Mears nodded to the imp in Buffy form holding the bowl who now took the form of Rupert Giles…Beaming kindly at the carefully watching image of Buffy Summers… "Give you some…You love good ole Mr. Giles, Buffy…"

"He gave me drugs once…And he tried to kill William…" she gave "Giles" a narrow stare…

Mears sighed…Ok…

"Well, maybe you'd like your mom to give you some…" he glanced hastily at another Buffy who immediately took Joyce Summers' form…Beaming happily at the startled Buffy…

"Ice cream, honey?..." "Joyce" offered the bowl…Which was cautiously taken..

Phew…Mears sighed…Watching as the contents of the bowl were hastily consumed…

"That's my girl…" "Joyce" smiled… "Now it's time to go back to your nice room…Come along Buffy…" she offered a hand which the now somewhat lethargic Buffy took quietly…

"Nite, nite…" Mears waved…Buffy waving dazedly back…Following "Joyce" down the street to a large grim building bearing the sign "Hideous Acres" in slow, shuffling march….

"And that…Once again…Is that…" sigh…Mears watching them slowly move to the door…

"Angelus!..." he cried… "Get out of whatever corner of Hell you're sculking in and gave me a hand here…Summon him…" he turned to a Buffy…Who nodded…

"Hey!..." Angelus fumed…Appearing before the crowd of imps in Buffy form, Mears, bored evildoers watching from their rain-swept tables…Naked and holding a similarly naked Buffy…

"When I say come, you come, brooding boy…" Mears frowned… "And you, what are you doing with him?...You're one of my…More or less…Girls…"

"Angelus said you'd want me to betray you, Lord Warren…" the naked Buffy insisted, innocently wide-eyed… "It's the right way for an Evil team member…"

"Just doin' my bit for Hell's worsement…" Angelus noted with grin…

"Angel?..."Buffy with "Joyce" at chamber door… "Is that you?..." she stared…

"Yes, Buffy…Me…With another woman…Betraying you…" he leered…

"Oh…" she said in lethargic voice… "That's ok…I don't love you anymore…I probably never did…"

"What…?" Angelus stared…

"I was just waiting for William…I probably thought you were him in a new form cause you had the soul…" she said, dazedly…

"The here you say, girl…" he fumed… "How dare you!...You belong to me!...Geesh…" downcast look… "Buffy?...That's damned mean…" fume again…

"Sorry…" she said wanly, following "Joyce" out… At Mears' insistent wave to "Joyce"…

"How could she say that to me?..." Angelus contined to fume… " 'I don't love you anymore?'…After all I did for her?...That bitch!..."

"Angelus…" Mears, rolling eyes…

"I can't believe this…For William the Bloody?...What the here was my counterpart doing on Earth?...Sleeping with every Undead poseur who showed up in town?... Why didn't he string that little bastard up?...Oh…How could she be so cruel?..."

"Angelus, you idiot!..." Mears shouted…

Hmmn?...

"It's not even her…And you're not Angel…"

"But it could've been…" Angelus fumed… "And if I were, it would be damned mean…"

"True enough…" the several dozen Buffy imps about Mears chorused…Angelus glaring…

"It's their job…When not tending my glorious self slavishly to hopefully humiliate Buffy…" Warren waved hands in a shrugging gesture… "Anyway…Someone's gotta take charge of her…I can't run this place and have her charging in all the time…"

"Gee…" Angelus sneered… "That must be…Here…"

"Right…" Mears sighed… "But since I was brought in for efficiency's sake…I can defer my own torment…And better yet pass the buck onto 'little people'…"

"The here you say…" Angelus shook his head… "I'm a Prince of Darkness, not an asswiping nursemaid…Unless I can carve her up…?" he eyed Mears with a hopeful look…

"You'd want her to remember that when she recovers…?" Warren eyed him…

"She'd remember…?" Angelus blinked…

"The doctors say she'll remember everything…"

"Jesus Christ!..."

Gasp…By the collective citizens gathered about…

"Whatever…And I don't mean my brooding counterpart…No one told me that…!"

Warren grinned… "Oh, you mean that little…Incident…?"

"If I'd known she'd remember…" Angelus, a slight and growing look of dread…

"Just hope she enjoyed the sex…" Warren chucked… "Maybe the First'll want you for her permanent boy toy after she recovers…"

"Look I can't be her nursemaid…I couldn't resist the urge to torment her…For all things Evil's sake Mears…"

"Fine, then come up with someone who's powerful enough to restrain her but whom we can kick around into taking over her care…That's why I summoned you…God…"

Silence throughout…Shocked looks…

"Hey, I run the place, I can say what I please…Knows…" Warren continued… "I don't need her madder at me than she'll be…Should she ever be granted a return to power here…We need someone who'll amuse her…"

"That leaves out Darla or Drusilla…" Angelus sighed… "Maybe we could negotiate with…You know, the other place…Get some fool of a kind soul…Maybe the real Joyce Summers…To take charge…"

"Of the First Evil, however insanely virtuous she may be right now?...In Hell?...God…"

Ok, stop doing that…He glared at the shocked, frozen faces… "That's an order…"

"…It's easy to see why your goofy schemes for world destruction failed…Lets have some useful ideas…"

"Well…She always was a bit partial to D'Hoffryn…" Angelus suggested… "She loved his imagination on things vengeance…" Grin…

Bastard was the one who set me up with those gypsies, after all…

Hmmn…Warren pondered… The Lord of Vengeance, eh?...I could see where the First would have a thing for him…

"Get me Lord D'Hoffryn…" he turned to a Buffy in Buffy's favorite red "power" suit…

"Buffy Summers lives only to please you, Lord Warren…Ohhh…" the imp knelt, worshipful, sultry look, disappearing…

Geesh why can't I have at least one of these on a permanent basis…Angelus sulked, watching…

"Whom has summoned the Lord of Vengeance…?" Darth Vader-ish voice…Black cloud…

"Oh, that's impressive…" Warren, sarcastically… "Pay no attention to the James Earl Jones clone behind the curtain, girls…" As the Buffy he'd dispatched in her red suit with a Slayer-in-charge look emerged, dragging a rather bedraggled D'Hoffryn…

"Mears?...What the f…!...I'm a busy thing!..." D'Hoffryn tried to assume a properly arrogant posture… "And what's the deal sending Buffy Summers after me?..."

And how the hell did you finally get her on your team?...After all my attempts with her and her previous form…

"Hey, V-man…" Angelus grinned, waving… "Buffy kick your butt thoroughly?..."

"Oh, no…He surrendered on seeing me…" 'Buffy' smiled… "Lord Warren?..."

"Yeah, yeah…Well done bitch…Go and await my pleasure…"

"The handcuffs or…?" she waited…

Hmmn…Angelus looked at her…Then Mears…

Sounds like my kind of evening…Perhaps we could do a four-…Or even a ten-some…

"The cerebral depressor…You came in to bring me down and I was ready for you…"

"Yes, Master…" she nodded…Disappearing…

"Red's her color…" Mears noted… "Well, D-boy…I guess you'd like to know why the current Lord of Hell called a minor flunky like you in…"

"Minor…?" D'Hoffryn choked…

"We have a job for you, D-H…" Angelus cut in, happily…

The addressed D-H fumed… "What?...I'm the Lord of Vengance…I take no orders!...Especially from a cheap poseur of Evil like you, vampire…" he glared at the smirking Angelus…

"Mr. Angelus is my deputy…" Mears frowned… "And while I'll gladly have his ass bust for assuming authority without my delegation, you'll take his orders and like it…Until I have you tortured for following them without my delegation…Now, as to the job at hand…" he waved to a Buffy who donned the form of the First in her current state… "Beware, evildoers!..." she waved a stake…

"Here's your charge…A grave…and I mean in terms of where you'll wind up if you fail me…Charge…The tender and watchful care of our beloved, if temporarily deranged by her defeat, First Evil…"

"What?..." D'Hoffryn raged as the imitation First resumed her normal Buffy in love thrall attire… "I'm no babysitter…"

"Look pal…" Mears sneered… "Whilst her Evilness is off her incorporeal blonde nut, yours truly is acting CEO here…By order of you know who…So, if you want to go on being Mr. Vengeance…And not don the face of a pretty nymph worshipping my ass…?"

"You wouldn't dare…" D'Hoffryn fumed…Eyeing Mears' narrow look…

"What are you gonna do, blast my skin off?...Been there, done that…" Mears glared… "Lets remember who Hell's current fair-haired…At least via fake skin and hair glam…Boy is, kiddo…"

"That won't last…" D'Hoffryn, sullenly…All I've done for the greater Evil all these millennia and it's all forgotten…His thoughts suddenly audible to his rage… "Hey!..."

"No privacy of person or thought here, horny boy…" Mears grinned… "And tough, this happens to be Hell…Where faithful service to the Cause of Evil goes unrewarded, natch…And one Warren Mears is running it by designation of the Senior Partners…So either you play nursemaid to the Crazed One until I say otherwise or she miraculously recovers…Or…Girls?..." he signed to several Buffy nymphs who pulled a large mirror D'Hoffryn's way…

"I always wanted to have Buffy's other self on my team…" Warren grinned… "Blonde and scrawny gets dull in endless number…" D'Hoffryn gasping at his…Her reflection…Halfreck…Or Cicely…Hard to say, really, but certainly young Cicely's form in nineteenth century ball dress…Parasol at her side…

"Well?...Sweetheart?...Do I have your cooperation or do I have to have your new and submissive personality instilled for a convincer?…I should warn you that takes a full day to remove and usually leaves permanent psychic damage…"

"All right…!" "Cicely" howled, waving parasol… "Fine!...I'll do it…Just turn me back!..."

Mears eyeing her… "Hmmn…I don't know, babe…You do look pretty hot…And it would complete my humiliating set of life-sized and fully functional Buffy action figures…"

Angelus chortling….

Expression of contented waiting…Well?...Mears smiled…

"Please…" "Cicely" grimly…

"That's the magic word…But you don't say with that sweetness I associate with a true supplicant…" Mears grinned…

"Very unsupple…" Angelus chimed in… "Hand her over to me for a few weeks…I'll instill a little subordination…"

"Cicely" eyed both…They smiling back…

"Girls, I think 'Cicely' here needs a personality downgrade…" Mears turned to his minions…

"No!...Wait!...Please, Warren…Forgive my insubordination…" sweet smile…

Just wait until your term of office expires…You little…

Hmmn…Mears blinking a bit at the lovely figure smiling demurely…

Now I really would like to keep her…Still, the nutcase needs a capable nurse…I can't spend another day having her chasing me round Hell, demanding I redeem or die…

Well, we can always decerebrate her later…

"Very well, Lord D'Hoffryn…I accept your submission in the name of Hell and my executive bosses…Girls, take milord…lady to the First…And give her my regards…"

"Aye, Lord…" several Buffies knelt, then rose…One leading "Cicely" by the hand…

"Mears!...What about…?" "she" indicated herself…

"Actually, that was your Haly's vengeance wish on you from the dimension her blasted soul ended up…Ironically neat, eh?...Sorry…But hey…Do a good job with our 'Buffy the NutCase' and I'll put in a good word for you regarding a stop order…" Mears grinned… "Ta-ta…And keep her off my back and entertained or you'll be overjoyed at the thought of giving Angelus and me sponge baths throughout Eternity…"

Gee…That doesn't sound too tough to take…Angelus thought…Eyeing the hastily retreating "Cicely"…

"That's one hot nineteenth century babe…" Angelus noted… "Any reason we couldn't have a few of the girls…?" he eyed Mears expectantly…

"I don't see why not, Mr. Angelus…Hey, you two?..." Mears called to a couple of Buffies in skin-tight gym clothes awaiting orders…

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Note: If not familiar with my Cicelyverse, you might try reviewing my notes at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse…There are pics and music for some stories in any case. Or try reading "Sunrise", "Anne", "Romance Palace" to get the gist…

Part I…

A dank cavern chamber…Temporary home to the currently incapacitated First…Some vague and bizarre efforts having been made to make it seem a bit more like the Sunnydale home of her nemesis and current template, Buffy Summers, it was at least lit by electricity instead of the usual torches…The other inhabitants, delegated to the First's care, looking with concern at the figure in the open doorway…Rising from their chairs about their charge, who'd been happily telling them for the umpteenth time her life story…Both of them…

"You…" the First, wild-eyed, pulled stake, her attendants, various Buffies in differing forms of dress, but avoiding Mears' more risqué choices, backing off in panic…

"Now…Buffy…" D'Hoffryn, still trapped in his/her "Cicely" form, approached her charge cautiously…

Medication…She eyed the attendants…

Now…

"Halfreck, authoress of all my sorrows…I know you…" the First charged, slashing… "Cicely" thankfully retaining some of her occult power teleporting a short distance to the side just in time…Attendants fleeing the cavern chamber…

"Buffy…I'm not Haly…Halfreck…" "Cicely" pleaded…As the First picked herself up from where she'd fallen after striking the far wall…

Well… "Cicely", observing the First's wobbly stance, and her efforts to pry loose the stake now embedded in the chamber's cavern wall…At least if she keeps this up she'll be out cold soon enough…

"No?..." the First now eyed her… "But you're me…But not me…No, you're trying to deceive me again, as you did in 1880 when you helped Drusilla, that foul beast, kill my William…Oh, no…You don't fool me…"

"I'm…" "Cicely" pondered…

Not likely pronouncing herself Halfreck's boss would score any points here…

"…Your other self here to help you remember the past…"

"What?..." the First blinked at her… "The Hell you say…"

"There are things you've forgotten, surely…" "Cicely" tried, winning manner with bright smile…

"But how could you be there and me here…And us really the same person…?" the First queried…A bit petulantly…

"Can't be…I may have gotten a D in Physics but I know that much…"

"I'm your past existence from another parallel universe…Here to help you save William…" "Cicely" tried… "He's still kicking, you know…"

"What…?" the First gasped…The few attendant Buffies still at hand, not able to reach the doorway without risking staking in passing her, gasped…

News travels slow in Hell, D'Hoffryn reflected…Twirling her parasol…

"Oh, yes…He's in LA with Angel…Buffy?..."

"Where's the airport?..." the First waved a stake at a terrified attendant Buffy in leather jacket and slacks…Hmmn…

"You're the Buffy-bot, aren't you?...Can you send emails?..." she asked the attendant who stared…

"Cicely" nodding to her..She caught the hint…

"Ummn…Yes, Buffy…" bright plastic smile… "I'm the Buffy-bot…But my wireless connection is down…"

"Oh…Well…Show me the way to the airport…" the First insisted… "I need to catch the first plane to LA…"

"The Buffy-bot" eyed "Cicely" who shrugged…

"First…Ummn…First, Buffy…" "Cicely called to her… The First turning with frown… "Don't bother me now, I have to get to LA…"

"Yes, but Buffy…You should fill in your memories first…Of the past…?" she tried… "So you can answer all those questions William will have…If you can't, he might not…"

"…Believe?..." the First cut in, hastily… "OH….He has to …I have to make him believe…Do you think if I kill Angel that would do it?..."

Hmmn…

"Maybe…But answering all his questions would be even better…Wouldn't it?..." "Cicely" suggested… "While we have Buffy-bot get us tickets to LA?..."

Hmmn…Ponder…

Narrow look…

"You could be Halfreck still trying to fool me…And kill William again…" the First noted… "Why would you come from a parallel universe to help me save William…?"

"Buffy…" "Cicely", shocked tone… "You know no Buffy/Cicely can be happy until all the Williams are safe…"

Hmmn…True enough…The First pondered…

"Ask the Buffy-bot…" "Cicely" suggested… "You know she never lies if it's to keep William happy and safe…"

Well…That is true…

"Ok…Buffy-bot?...Is Cicely lying?..."

"Cicely" giving narrow look to the hesitant "Buffy-bot"…Do what you do best, idiot…

Ummn… "Oh, no…" bright plastic smile… "She's a real Cicely…You can trust her…Absolutely…"

Hmmn…Well…

If Buffy-bot says it so…

"Ok…" the First paused… "Buffy-bot, go get us two tickets to LA…"

"Buffy-bot" making right face and marching out of the chamber with a look of extreme relief…

"Now…Tell me about the past, other self…" the First moved to face "Cicely", stake still in hand, at her side… "And it better be good…"

"Or, you die…" she wiggled the stake in her hand…

" 'Cause we helped to kill William and we should suffer for it…" she said, solemnly…

"Oh, we've suffered, Buffy…" "Cicely", brightly…

Hmmn…Perhaps a little less relishment of said "suffering"…She put a somber expression on her face…

"…Suffered dreadfully…As horribly as William has…"

"That's good…" the First nodded… "We have to redeem ourselves…To be worthy…That's why William didn't believe me in the cavern before…" downcast look… "Oh, yes…Cicely…Tell me how we suffered…And how he did…" she took seat on a large, flat rock near the center of the room, motioning to "Cicely" to sit beside her…

"Uh…Yeah…Well, you know…Or you may have forgotten, Buffy…That even when William and we met, there was some suffering…" "Cicely" began… "And it got worse…"

"Sunday in the Park with William…"

London, 1879…Spring…

April, eleven months before the death of William Soames Walthrop, aspiring poet…

Hyde Park…

Blossoms out…Spring in the air… By-passers less hurried… Street vendors a bit more jolly and light-hearted with the improved trade…Honest and dishonest beggars noting a slight improvement in their take…Pickpockets and other thieves similarly rewarded… A certain spring to the step of even the tired-to-death cab horses and their drivers…Young lovers especially affected…

"That is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard…" a male voice, that of young William Soames Walthrop, asserted…Frowning to his left at the one who'd stated the "most idiotic thing", the slightly older, grimly glaring, ravishing young Queen of London society, Miss Cicely Anne Addams…Pulling at the large amber necklace held between her fingers, her only souvenir of her long-deceased mother and a constant talisman to ward off evil…Or frustrating people…

Lord…Two months ago he could barely speak to me…Now…she thought…Watching his set face…

Beside her, to her left, her somewhat perturbed cousin, Henry Alexander Foxcroft, in casual grey suit, soft hat in hand…Whose kind brown eyes locked on Will, begging for a peaceful resolution to the crisis…The three pausing in their promenade…

"Just because I don't know poverty on a daily basis…" Cicely began…Releasing her necklace and adjusting the angle of her white-lace-trimmed, blue silk parasol to block the afternoon sun…

The three proceeded…Henry smilingly bowing to a few middle aged ladies as Cicely curtsied and Will nodded as they passed…

"Well?..." she eyed William…

"At least don't regurgitate your father's political platform…" William sighed, resuming… " 'We must have low wages to keep jobs'?...What the hell good is a job one can't afford to live on?"

"Mr. Walthrop…" Cicely, coldly…

"Sorry…What the good then…" Will corrected…

"But…Surely the poor need employment…If only to keep them…"

"From thinking?...Do you require employment, Miss Addams?..." William frowned…

"That's hardly…"

"You don't work…Your needs are met and then some…Yet no one considers your situation deplorable or detrimental to your character…" William noted…Henry sighing… "In fact, it would be considered a dreadful thing were you to have to go and earn your daily bread…"

"You think I couldn't?..." she fumed…

"This isn't about you personally…I'm speaking in general terms…You're taking the position that the poor should be kept working, even at below starvation wages, because their not working would be somehow disgraceful and immoral…Yet you see nothing wrong with an aristocrat or wealthy industrialist's offspring doing nothing and living off the sufferings of those people…"

"Did I say that?...Henry?..." she turned to Foxcroft in rage… "Well?..."

"I wouldn't say you said…That…." Henry began…

"Exactly…!" Cicely turned back to Will…Who rolled eyes…

"I merely say that my father may have a point…"

"…In keeping wages low to the benefit of his wealthy constituents…" William eyed her… "It's not like the poor he'd like to keep working like dogs for crumbs get to vote you know…"

"And what then?...Should we all live without effort…Should no one value honest work?...Oh, I know what you'll say next, William…" she glared… "I've never worked an honest day's work in my life, correct?...The…What you said before…You know…But even if you dismiss everything I do for my father and his work as mere frippery...How could the Nation possibly allow everyone to live without working?...What socialist paradise exists where food appears out of nothing and raiment drops from the skies and…" she paused at his hard stare… "What are you looking at?..."

"Nice lace…" he noted, nodding at the parasol… "Who do you think made it and stitched it on?...And how much do you think she got for it?..."

"Well…"

"My sister used to do work like that…She got I think sixpence a day…For ten hours work…"

She blinked…

"I didn't know you have a sister?..."

"I had two…That one, Mary, died…Consumption…"

"I didn't know that…I'm sorry…"

"Thanks…I'm not telling you that to arouse your guilt…My point is…We couldn't live on her fifty, sometimes sixty hours of work in a week…Nor my mum's long hours…And even with all of us, we barely survived…And had no opportunity to even consider pursuing anything better…That's the reality of your father's concern for the working man…I'm sorry if I put it harshly but that's what it is…Harsh…"

"I think…" Henry eyed the stricken Cicely… "Will does have a point here, Cics…It's his experience…"

"I don't mean to belittle suffering, William…" she looked at Walthrop… "Perhaps I did put it badly…"

"I'm not expecting a paradise…I'd just like to see wages rise high enough to let decent people survive in some dignity…" William sighed… "And it's a terrible waste to the country, all the beauty and creativity potential in these souls thrown away…Men and women reduced to brutality and violence to survive…"

"It's good of you not to have forgotten them in your own good fortune…" she replied… "I do appreciate that Will…Don't judge me too harshly…"

"I don't judge anyone, Miss Addams…I only see what's about me and try to speak honestly of it…Much as I would rather dwell solely on Beauty and the Angel in Man…I…" pause…

I speak too much sometimes…he finished, wanly…

"What?..." she asked…A direct gaze that made him reluctantly continue…

"It's only that I fear sometimes I might prefer to forget the others…" he replied, a bit curtly… "I would, I admit it…Sometimes…Love to forget my past and stay in the clouds…Here…"

With you…He did not say…

"…But fortunately, one day I must return to Earth…"

"You'll never go back down there…" Cicely began…

So long as I'm alive to keep you here…She did not say…

"…I mean…I know you'll succeed…And do good things for the others…As Henry will when he gets to Parliament…"

"I'd better…" Henry smiled… "I know crusading writer W.S. Walthrop will hang me from his pen and skewer my poor hide to his study wall if I don't…"

"I know you'll do everything that can be done, Henry…" Will smiled… "As for crusades, I'll be lucky if I'm writing advertisements when I leave Cambridge…"

"What will you do then, William?..." Cicely asked…With an earnestness that made Henry wince slightly…

A bit less obvious, dearest girl…If Sir Richard ever heard you…

"Whatever I have to to keep Amelia, Phil, and Mum in bread and shelter…" he replied… "But, fortunately, thanks to 'Mr. Walthrop'…Or whoever…" he paused at Cicely's distressed look…

"…Thanks to my father doing the right thing, finally, by Mother…My efforts may not be quite as desperately needed as otherwise…"

"They are well set up, for life, aren't they?..." Cicely asked, a note of concern…A slight look of embarrassment…

"I don't mean to intrude on personal matters, Will…"

"I appreciate the concern, Miss Addams…No, they should be set…But one never knows in this sad world and I would like them to be as secure as I can make them…Which is of course a rather ludicrous statement for a would-be writer/poet to make, I know…"

"You have to follow where your talents lead you, Will…" Henry shook his head… "By all means be glad you've a chance to do so…But don't throw away your chance because you think you don't deserve it…You've earned a place at the table with the best of them…Life's given you that much at least…"

"Yes…" Cicely insisted… "I…We'll never let your family suffer for your pursuing your dreams Will…If we're good for nothing else…At least we can be useful to you there…"

"I never said…" Will's turn to frown…

"Right, it's only the idiot female flower who's of no usefulness…" Cicely smiled…

"Miss Addams…"

"But one day…" she smiled again, more broadly… "You might be surprised to find just how 'useful' a woman can be…"

Hmmn…She eyed the setting sun…

Speaking of usefulness…And having a job to do…

"Perhaps we'd better head for home…It's getting a bit late…" she nodded at the sun…

"And silly frivolous me has a formal party at nine to prepare for…One which includes the Prime Minister amongst Father's guests…" she grinned at William…

"Which I hope, Mr. W…You will attend…If not too trivial and time-wasting an occasion for you…"

"I don't think I have the right...Attire…available, Miss Addams…" he replied… "Though I never consider your evenings a waste of time…"

"Useful intelligence on the enemy?..." Henry grinned… "You mustn't pass up that chance, Will…"

"Absolutely…" William smiled… "But not tonight…I've but one good suit and it's out…"

"Henry will lend you one…Don't be ridiculous…" Cicely, a bit more forcefully then she'd intended…

Oh…Don't leave me trapped for two hours with those…

"Certainly, if you'd be willing, Will…" Henry, carefully…

"I'm grateful for the invitation…I don't mean to be ungracious…And it is stimulating to hear some of your friends and Sir Richard's colleagues…But…I think…"

"Sorry…" she waved a hand… "I realize what a bore we must be to one of your deep and philosophical nature…"

"Cicely…" Henry…

"I said I appreciate the invite and the chance…" William said, carefully… "But tonight I think it would be best for me to pass…Thank you…"

"Of course…" Cicely, turning away…Looking across the park… "Though I'd think you'd like the chance to air some of your views where it might do some good…As well as perhaps let someone hear a bit of your work besides Henry…But if you're too busy…"

"I'm not a performing monkey…" William said coolly…

Here we go again, Henry sighed as Cicely's face reddened…

"How dare you?..." she shouted…Startling him and Henry with her vehemence…Shaking fists…

"Have I ever given you cause…?" she broke from them and ran off…William staring after her, then at Henry…Who shrugged…

"Give us a mo…" he sighed, hurrying after his cousin…Who'd stopped a few dozen feet beyond them and was intensely engaged in pulling her gloves and adjusting her parasol…

"Cics…He's a foot shorter than me…Would you have him made fun of all evening by some of those idiots, stumbling round in one of my suits…?" he hissed to her…Staring at her red, weeping face…

"Cics?..."

"I'm fine…" she gulped… "Please don't let him come over…"

"Cics…Oh, Cics…" he sighed… "What's to be done?..."

"I'm fine…I'm fine…" she eyed him…Smiling brightly…Rubbing at her face a moment with a delicate handkerchief…

"I'll apologize…You're right…I didn't understand…" she said, calmly… "Don't worry, I won't offend his tender feelings…"

"Well…Here he comes…Brace up, cousin…"

"Miss Addams…" William said, a bit formally as he approached… "I'm very sorry if I offended…It wasn't intentional…I probably should explain that I have a great deal of work to get through…"

"Of course…" she nodded… "Apology accepted, Mr. W…" she smiled at him… "We'll do it another time, when things are less pressing…I apologize for not valuing your time properly…"

"…But…" William hesitated… "…Despite that…If Henry would be able to lend me a suit…I would be very pleased and honored to accept your kind invitation…If it's still open…"

"Of course…" she nodded… "But really if your work…" He put up a hand…

"It will be fine…" he nodded… "So long as you do want me…" he adjusted glasses, peering at her…

Oh, God…Yes…she thought…Yes…

And if one of those fops has so much as a smile on his face when you enter the house…

"Well, that's settled…" Henry beamed…

A tall gentleman in top hat and elegant cream-colored suit standing with a lovely young brown-haired woman in green jacket and black skirt, eyeing the retreating threesome...

"So that's the greatest Slayer of all time?..." the woman eyed her companion... "That's Cicely Addams...?"

"That's her..." the gentleman nodded...

"Seems a bit easily upset...And none too choosey, given the fellow she's falling all over..." the woman frowned...

"William Soames Walthrop...And there's nothing surprising about it...They're soulmates...And have been for several millenia...Perhaps longer..."

"They certainly bicker like an old married couple...So Anyanka met them before...?" the woman asked...

"In 1598...And 1665, more briefly...Though their genders were exchanged, and he was the Slayer that last time, a rare thing for them but not all that unusual in soulmates..."

"A little too close a relationship if you ask me..."

"Haly..." the gentleman eyed her... "Are you hesitant about this one?..."

"Who, me...?" Halfreck blinked...

"She's a relative...Some of my girls do get squeamish around relatives...If you have any reservations, sweetheart...Now's the time...Anyanka would be very pleased to have one last chance at them..."

"I never put anything before the job, D-H..." Halfreck shook her head... "If she is a relation, it's nothing to me...Heck I died 4000 years ago...How close could it be?..."

"Very well..." D'Hoffryn nodded... "The assignment's yours...When the time comes..."

"Meaning?...We don't have a client?..." Haly blinked...

"Not in so many words...Though I have someone with great potential..A man who loves her, and will not be pleased when he learns how her fickle heart has turned from him to another..."

"The cheap little..."

"He's a father figure to her..." D'Hoffryn shook his head... "She's no conscious idea of his feelings or how far he's willing to go to have her...Or break her to be pieces..."

"Really?..." Haly grinned... "And we to be there to pick up said pieces?..."

"It has been the dream of my existence to bring a Slayer to my fold...And she is the greatest..." he smiled...

"So...My part?..."

"The usual preliminaries...Study her...Follow her...And the boy...And be ready to pounce the moment we get the call...For it will come...One day..." he smiled... "Soon..."

"Like the Egyptian cat god I was named for..." Haly nodded...


	2. Chapter 2

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

Part II…

Hell…The secure chamber in which the First Evil in her currently somewhat pixilated condition resided under the care of imps in Buffy form…And her storyteller/keeper, the demon lord D'Hoffryn, currently forced by order of the acting CEO of Hell, Warren Mears, into the form of Buffy Summers' past existence, the beauteous Cicely Addams Walthrop...

"So then the stuffed and gutted body of Warren Mears was …" 'Cicely' continued…

"Hanging, drawing, quartering, stuffing, and gutting while alive is not something I think the Slayer is allowed to do…" 'Buffy' noted…

"Hell, girl…" 'Cicely' frowned… "We're Slayers, right?…We can do as we please…"

"Oh, no…" 'Buffy', wide-eyed… "The Slayer is a force for light and love in a cruel and cynical world…She ensures that evil is punished and good rewarded…"

"That's nice…" 'Cicely' nodded… "But as I said, this was to save our William…" solemn look…

"Well…" 'Buffy' considered… "I suppose in that case…"

A Buffy imp attendant entered in cheerleading costume…Eyeing 'Cicely' carefully…

Hmmn… "Excuse me, Buffy…Another sister from a parallel universe needs my advice…"

"Oh…" 'Buffy' eyed Cheerleader Buffy… "Are you battling the fiendish mother of Amy, Buffy?..."

'Cicely', hastily nodding…Just go with it, you moron…

"Yes, Buffy…I'll just be a minute…" the imp smiled…

"Try mirrors…" 'Buffy' suggested…

"Well…?" 'Cicely' hissed…

"Lord Mears requests an update…"

"Tell him all's well…"

"Actually…I'm lying…" Cheerleader Buffy noted… "He has a direct feed from here, been watching every moment…He wants you to know one more 'gut and stuff Warren' suggestion and you stay 'Cicely'…Contentedly…"

"…And washing his and Angelus' clothes and backsides for all eternity…Contentedly…" she added…

"Fine…I mean, no more 'gut and stuff'…" 'Cicely' sighed…

Out loud…For now…

"He thought you'd agree…" Cheerleader Buffy nodded…Heading for the exit door… "Oh, and Angelus says to tell you he got a good look down your cleveage a few minutes ago… 'Nice goods', he said to say…Goodbye, Buffy…" she waved…

"Goodbye…Tell Amy in your universe she shouldn't do rat in deadly anti-Wican situations…She'll be much happier…And perhaps Willow will go for her instead of Tara…" 'Buffy' waved…

God…You know… 'Cicely' eyed herself in the reflecting pool in the center of the chamber…Pity one can't drown permanently in Hell…

I actually don't look half-bad…It is rather nice looking rather…Nice…Lord, Haly never looked quite right in the part…Can't believe she actually fooled William even for the few minutes needed to destroy him…

But what the hell did he see in Buffy after spending time with me?...Er, with Cicely…?

"So… Cicely…What else can you tell of William and our past while we wait for our plane tickets…?" 'Buffy' turned to 'Cicely'…

I mean look at these, compared to her little…Hmmn?... Oh, right…

"Well…"

"You said there would be tales of our sufferings?...Losing an argument with William in a park and then killing Warren to avenge him doesn't sound so…"

"There was the time he saved us…From our darker side…And we completely failed him…Didn't even remember what he'd done…" 'Cicely' noted… "Had a chance to rescue him, muffed it completely…"

"When Glory beat him almost to dust?..."

"Worse…"

"When we left him, with soul and insane, in a basement, alone…?"

"Child's play…" 'Cicely' shook her head…

God, how could we have been so…?

Hmmn… 'Cicely' blinked…

"Is insanity contagious in Hell?..." 'she' hissed to a Buffy imp attendant in Grecian goddess robes…

"I think Lord Mears is counting on it…" the imp nodded…

"Oh…" wan look from 'Buffy'…

"I must hear…So I can atone…But…Cicely?...If I didn't remember, how could you…?"

"Parallel universe, Buffy…Don't even try to puzzle it out, sweetheart…Paradox the size of a major headache…"

"I see…Go on…" 'Buffy' sat on a large flat boulder near the pool…

"Well, about nine months after Spike came to Sunnydale…Just after Angel took his ride to Hell?...When Spike was about to leave with your permission…?"

"Leave…Oh…No…Is that the story?...Oh…Why didn't I remember and make him stay…?"

"There was a bit more to it, Buf…Vicious evil and cruelty…"

"You mean when I didn't even thank him for helping me save the world from Angelus and the Judge before he left?..." sad-eyed stare…

That was terrible… 'Cicely' sighed…The phalanx of Buffy imps in various costumes attending sighed…

Ummn…

"Anyway…This was even worse…"

"Sunset…"

Part I…

"Christ…" Spike eyed the broken fuel gauge…Looking carefully out of the opening in the painted-over windshield at the descending twilight…

Of all the things that could have happened to this beauty of mine…I forget the gas needle is permanently stuck at half-full…And that cars are not 'glass is half full' kinds of people…

Drusilla muttering in her sleep in the back…

And there's another joy…When milady awakens…And if she awakens close enough to Slayerland that it wouldn't be much of a vengeance trek, always a major consideration for one so flighty of mind…So much for my temporary truce…

Well, at least this is one problem not too impossible to rectify…At least not for the current world-saving champion vampire, William the Bloody…Defeater of Angelus and the Judge, with a little help from human bit players…

Though, sadly…Not bit…Would dearly have liked to have a taste of that girl…Ah, well…

Of course cash flow is a minor problem…And given I'm still in Sunnydale environs, I suppose bloody homicide for gas is not a wise option…

After all, I may want to do business with that Slayer again before I kill her…

Still, nothing in our agreement says I can't commit a few minor acts of larceny…There must be an ATM somewhere nearby just waiting for the magic moment when I come crashing in through its door…

Or perhaps a bank…Might pick up some jewelry for Dru from the safety deposit boxes on the way out…A bit of a peace offering…

He opened the door cautiously…Yes, just about dusk…He got out and with great care closed the door…Peering inside…

Yes, sleeping like a drugged and inconvenient baby about to be tossed into the river…Excellent…

A brisk constitutional in the pleasant evening's air…The world's savior getting to savor his heroics, pleasantly nodding and greeting the lower end of the food chain…Hell, surely saving about 6 billion cancels out viciously killing 40,000 or so…

"Is that him?..." A brown-haired girl in blouse, sweater vest, slacks eyed the strolling Spike as he set out down the highway, back in the direction from whence he'd just come…

"That's him…" The lord of all things vengeful, glorious in aspect in his battle armor, nodded…His carewornly handsome face expressing a profound mix of emotions…Hopeful triumph, sneering contempt, vicious amusement…A touch of bitter resentment…God, the trouble this little blonde putz and his girl have put me to…

"He's the one who cost Haly her assignment?...What's he got?..."

"No, not him…And he's got…The Slayer…The same one who cost Haly her assignment, so look out…"

"The vampiress in the car is…?"

"No, Anyanka…" D'Hoffryn sighed… "Of course not…"

"Well…He does have a rep with Slayers…" she noted… "He's got the Slayer?...Tied up, enthralled?..."

"She's protecting him…Though she doesn't know it…" he said, patiently… "Her past memories buried, but instinctively she'll never let harm come to him…"

"Ok…So he's a vampire as was ordered on the original job?..." his companion asked… "And his wife, the Slayer in question, was poisoned and died with their child and he's become a major player on the manical killer circuit…And doesn't know and may well happily kill said wife in her new girly form…If he can…?"

"Right…"

"And so Haly screwed this one…How?..."

"She failed the mission goal, Anyanka…To bring the Slayer to despair…Defile her soul and make her ready to accept us…"

"Oh…" Hmmn…

I don't remember ever agreeing to 'defilement of soul' in my contract…

And more importantly…This one…Been there, failed that…

"You know, Buffy Summers doesn't seem any less spunky than Cicely…" she noted… "Maybe…"

"Are you suggesting you'd like resign this case?...You know no one resigns my cases…Voluntarily…"

"I didn't volunteer in the first place, D-H…" she sighed… "But I'm just pointing out…Since I did fail with them twice in previous lives…"

"You want to remind me of that?..." he glared…

"I'm just sayin'…Haly oughta have another chance…Just to be fair…"

Yes, indeed…Wouldn't want her to miss an opportunity to screw it again…

"She's wrong for this job…She'd stir up unwelcome memories…Consider this a chance to retrieve your shattered reputation, Anyanka…Now pay attention…I expect you to make the most of this chance…"

Sigh… "Right, boss…So?...I get her to wish she'd finished Spike off…Her own husband…Then let her find out about everything?…"

"Not bad but no…She's used up her occult wishes for the moment…It's his turn…"

"You want me to grant Spike's wish?..." she eyed him… "How does that get us a Slayer justice demon?...He wishes her dead in spectacular fashion…She's dead, reunites with his soul…End of story..."

He eyed her…

"This is why I'm the minion…." she sighed… "I get it, boss…"

"Just do as I tell you and leave the strategic planning to me…" he insisted…

"Hey, there…Blonde, lithe, and gorgeous…You need a ride into Sunnydale?..."

Spike eyed the open car door…And its rather open occupant…A tall brown-haired beauty in light fall clothes…Smiling warmly…

"As a matter of fact…" he gave a boy's smile… "I could do with a lift to the nearest gas station…"

"Hop in…" the door locks popped…

He moved to the passenger side…

"Thanks…" he climbed in…Closing door… "But a girl like you should be careful whom she takes for a ride…"

"No problem…" beaming smile… "I always trust a man in a leather jacket…It's the nerds in buttoned-up shirts and tight little ties you hafta watch out for…" grin…

"William…" he offered a hand…

"Anya Jenkins…" she accepted and pumped the hand with her right hand while steering them back into the highway with the other…

"That's lovely…Hope this isn't taking you out of your way…"

"Nah…I live in Sunnydale…" Anya shrugged… "You from England?...I can tell by the accent…" she smiled…

He nodded, warm boy's smile… "Indeed…And here I was hopin' I'd pass for a Billy Idol groupie…"

"Too good-looking…" Anya smiled…

"And you?..." he asked politely… "Fresh out of Hell, aren't you?..."

She eyed him…He her…

"Please keep one of however many eyes you actually have on the road, miss…" he said, sternly… "I've no wish to complete a very bad day by ending up dust in someone's tail pipe…"

"You're good…"

"Please…" he put up a hand… "Lets not stoop to insults…What do you want?...And since I don't quite sense that 'big bad' aura, more importantly…What does your boss want?...

"Only to benefit a brother demon…A compadre in the fight for Evil against all things good…"

"If you're that unselfish I'm shocked you didn't come a chargin' to save your good friend the Judge and his plans to level all before him in the name of Demonity and all things Evil…"

"I'm here to help you, William…Specifically…"

"Delightful…What do I have to buy?...Will dinner and a movie suffice?..."

"That would be nice…" she gave an arch smile back… "But I can't accept presents from clients…"

"Ah, the incorruptible Evil…" he nodded… "Dedicated to the Cause and all that…You know you religious fanatics are the prime cause of the suffering in this world…And grateful as I am for that…"

"Just tell me what you most want…William…" she smiled…

Whoa!...He grabbed the wheel and turned it just enough to get them safely past an overturned tree in the road…She staring as well…

"I think right now I most want you to keep your eyes on the road…" he noted…

"Sorry…" she bit her lip… "I've only been driving since I got here a week ago from the early 20th…"

"Twenty gallons of gas, free…" he said suddenly…She glancing at him a second only…

"What can I say?…My needs are simple…"

"What about that bitch Slayer…Bitchy the Blonde?..."

"Oh…" he shrugged… "She's all right as Slayers go…Keeps her deals…And I prefer to do my own killin'…Now, love…"

She grimaced as he twisted at the point where he'd gripped her arm… Ohhh…

"I'm sure killing you is out of the question…And thrall useless…But I'm a great believer in the power of raw physical violence…Who wants to hire me for whackin' the Slayer?...And why?...Might be wise to pull over, love…"

She did so…Rubbing freed arm on stopping…

"So?..." he eyed her…

"I meant what I said…" she noted… "I'm here to help you set all things right…"

"For how many easy payments of $9.95?..."

"You wouldn't like to have vengeance?..."

"A kindly fellow like me, with full access to my own inner maniac?...Why should I wish ill toward anyone in particular, apart from the natural need to feed and the instinct to inflict suffering?...No, my heart is filled with nothing but benevolence…I just saved the world, if you weren't aware…"

"Then surely the world owes you, William…"

"Twenty gallons of gasoline will do nicely…Thanks…"

"Not even interested in another crack at the Slayer?..."

"My friend and angel of light, Buffy Summers?…Why, ma'am if you were to take one ill-intentioned step in her direction…"

She eyed him…

"I could almost believe you meant that…" she said…

"Lady…" he smiled coldly… "Thanks for the lift…But I'm not a contract player…As for the Slayer, I'll deal with her…Whoever she is at that time…In my own eternal time…" he opened the door…

"Wait…" she pulled out her purse…Taking out a twenty… "I'm obliged to grant your wish…" she smiled…Handling him the money which he stared at a moment, then shrugging, took…

"Thanks…" he turned to get out…

"Spike might be content with that…" she began…

"But what about William Soames Walthrop…?"

He paused, eyeing her coolly…Thin smile…

"He'd probably throw the dough in your face and stride off to his untimely death, making a pretty, if dull speech on the inherent nobility of the human soul…Give it and my rotting soul a rest, love…Good night…" he got out…

"It felt good to be a hero, didn't it…?" she called from the open door… "Some little part of you was William again, for an instant in spite of everything, wasn't he?..."

"Wasn't he?..." she was beside him now, standing as he looked at the car door, exasperation on his face…He whirled…The briefest of starts, then calm, hard stare…

"I've been polite…" he said quietly… "Now if you don't want me to muss that pretty hair…"

"You can't harm me…But I could help you, William…" Anya smiled…

"Do you get paid strictly by commission for this sort of thing, is that it…?" he frowned… "All right, you're some sort of wish-granter…I've heard tell of your kind…One of D'Hoffryn's girls, I presume?..."

"Anyanka…" she nodded…

"Tell your boss the mark's not interested and if he bothers me again, there will be consequences…You might describe in detail the untimely roasting of our beloved Anointed One, ok?...Besides, I thought your type dealt strictly with the little mortal kind…"

"You were, once…And he's still hanging about, demanding answers, seeking justice…" she noted… "You know he is…"

"If he were so foolish, he'd deserve his fate…" Spike started off down the road…Leaving her alone…

"Suppose…" she was beside him again, walking…

"Christ…" he slapped at her with hard swipe…

"Just hear me out…" she was on his opposite side…

"Until we reach the nearest station and I set you aflame with some of the gas you so kindly paid for…"

"Fine…Suppose you had the chance to be the hero, not the victim…At last…"

"I like to see myself as the hero of every encounter…It's all in the eye of the evil beholder, you know…" he replied…Eyeing her…

"Suppose the chance included a chance to learn everything about that night…And what really happened…?"

"A girl dumped me, I drank too much, a streetwalker who offered me a jolly time turned out to be Drusilla…Mystery solved, love…"

"No…And you know it, William…"

He paused… "Why?..."

"I exist to see justice done…We all do…"

Uh-huh… "Lovely…Why?..."

"Injustice was done to each of us, so…"

"No, love…You know what I mean…Why me?..."

She hesitated…

Gotta give it the full force…

Yet…Honesty?...Unprecedented…

Still, D-H knows his souls…And this one will only cave for the true…

"It's our chance to capture Cicely's soul…" she replied… "And condemn her as you were condemned…"

He stared at her…

"Her soul lives…Now…Here…" she nodded… "Free of you, but…Searching for you…Desperate to find you and make amends, in point of fact…And this is your chance to learn the how and the why…"

"D'Hoffryn wants Cicely's soul?..." he blinked…

"To drag her down and condemn her forever…It's what we do…" she smiled…"Particularly to the greatest of heroines…With a tragic weakness…"

"Good luck with that, love…Give the bitch my regards if you pull it off…" he continued on…

"Part of you…Loves the idea of condemning that bitch…But most of you…Admit it,William…"

He snarled at her…Taking face…She vanished to reappear on the branch of a large tree…

"Wasting your time, Spike…" she cooed…Then back at his right side…

"You want answers…" she noted to his furious face… "Admit it…And, whatever rage you feel at her…I've made you wonder…As you so often do, floating about Spike…William, I know you're here…You have a choice now…You can go on floating round, till Spike wallows in so much blood even you run for Limbo or Heaven or whatever and Cicely can meet her inevitable fate, abandoned by you…Or…You can have a chance to know the truth and to take matters into your own hands…Stop being the victim, if only for an instant…"

"A puzzler…And a catch…?"

"If you fail…Probably all's lost…Forever…For all Humanity as well as you and Cicely…" she smiled benignly… "Yeah…She's that important…And of course you'd likely be dust…"

"There is no me and the one you mentioned…As for Humanity, I've done more than any vamp should be expected to do, thanks…"

"And if you win…" she smiled… "You get another chance…Both of you…"

"Delightful…No…"

"Why do you think you've been so fascinated by Slayers?...Why this particular Slayer?..." she stared at him…

And found herself on the ground, breath knocked out of her…

Tsk-tsk…He wagged a forefinger at her…She got up, frowning…Ok…

"Nice…You have ability, William…You'll have Spike's power…A fair chance…At last, answers…And…" wry smile…

"A chance to really impress the girl of your dreams…" she beamed… "Plus I threw in that full tank of gas…Come on…What have you got to lose but a pesky soul hovering about…"

"How could…?"

Nibble…Now play the line, let him run with it…

"Twenty-four hours to resolve everything…Find the answers…Save the world on your own from a terrible Evil…Well, with some help but not hers…And save the girl…From her own darkness…"

He paused…Words coming to him, he couldn't stop them from coming through…

"And the catch, even if…?"

"…If you win?…You get another chance…Not resolution…We can't give you that…But a certain chance…Both of you…Will, she's dying within, doesn't even know that she is, poor kid…Losing her Humanity to the Slayer as she's always feared…And much as we want that, I'll be honest…There's a part even of us that wants to see you two have a sporting chance…Will you abandon her, fail her again?...And the others, this is their chance too…"

"I never…" he gasped…Suddenly…

Well…Hello, William…Hooked and in the bag…She thought, contentedly…

"You can hear her, screaming, crying…Pleading for you to believe in her…And you do, you have still all these years, in spite of that night…Will, don't leave her, trapped like this…Worse than you, dying with her guilt…And the others, they're dying within too…You know that, it's your pity and compassion that was the lure for Dru…Give them this chance for a moment of redemption…Give her this chance…"

"Cicely?..." he whispered…

Warm smile…

"Wish…Granted, William…" Anyanka disappeared…

He glanced round again, for the tenth time…No sign of her…Gone…

Lord…He shrugged…

Well, whatever it was…Practical joke or something real…I still need gas…He looked down the highway…

A light…Seemed like a sign…Yes, the last station on the way out of town…Well, stick to the practical for now and worry about what can't be helped later…

Cicely…He pictured her, for the first time in what?...Fifty years…?

Alright, more like fifty days…Perhaps even…Hours?...

But that was surely Spike simply stoking the ole fires of vengeance…

Searching for me…And here, now…She said…

No…He shook his head…

No…It's a trick…A joke…A very bad one…Perhaps of Angelus' makin'?...A little parting gift left in case his little plan to destroy all failed?...Have me runnin' to the Slayer, asking her…?

Yeah, a pretty picture that…She laughing so hard, she might even spare me again, just kick me down the road outta town…

No…Not possible…

Cicely was much bigger all around…

Still…She was a sweet girl…Though full of sass, like Cics was, in the first days…The old days…The days when I dreamed…No…

No…

Lost in his thoughts…He failed to see the moon had turned a bloody red…Then cleared…

A scream interrupted his reverie…He instinctively hurried toward the sound, coming from the station ahead…

A young woman, dark-haired…On the ground, her legs crushed by the car that had driven over her…Shrieking in agony…He moved to her…Blood all over…

"Help me!..." she wailed…

He looked round…Some way to stop the bleeding…Tourniquet?...He grabbed a long cleaning rag… "Miss, I'll have to lift your legs, hang on…" he lifted and wrapped the rag about her left thigh, the left leg a bloody mess…

"Oh…" she moaned… "You son of a bitch!..."

"I'm sorry…That should slow the bleeding…Let me try and get help…" he rose and saw the station attendant eyeing them…

"Did you call a doctor?..." he called…

"Call one yourself…" the boy shrugged… "And get her out of my driveway…" He turned and went back inside…

Jesus…Spike stared…

"I'll kill him when I catch up with him…" the girl hissed… "Get me a doctor, you bastard!..."

He eyed her angry, contorted face…Pain, of agonizing sort, certainly…But something more…A raging hate winning out even over agony that should have put all thoughts but agony aside…

He hurried to the station store and went in… "Phone?..."

"There…" the boy pointed, slouching… "And get her out or I'll throw her in the highway…"

"Hello…911…I'm reportin'…"

"Go to Hell…" click…

"Hello?..." he tried…

Wrong number?...He dialed again…

"What?..."

"This is an emergency…Is this 911?..."

"Yeah…F-you…" click…

Hmmn…

He dialed "0"…

"Operator, can you put me through to the nearest hospital off Rt 195 in Sunnydale?..."

"Sure…" laugh…Click…

Right…He pondered, then dialed 411…

Where an out-of-town operator quickly gave him the number and transferred the call…

"Sunnydale General?...Emergency?..."

Hideous screams in the background…

"Whatda you want?..."

"I've an emergency…A woman run over…"

"Alive?..."

"Only if you hurry…Please…"

"Arnie, we may have a live one…" call… "Where is she?..."

"The Mobil station on Rt 195, just out of town…Can you hurry?..."

"Keep her packed in ice and we'll get to her…" chuckle… "Bring the saw and the organ box…Don't blow this one…" call…

He hung up…

Hmmn…

Oh…God…He suddenly gasped…A vision of the girl on the ground…He trembled, shuddered at the sight…

No…Not her…One like her…One…

Louise…That girl in St. Louis…The one who'd begged him to leave her baby alone…

No…And I laughed and…

"Hey…Either buy something and get the bitch outta my driveway or get…" the attendant called to him…But backed down at his icy stare…

I took that baby and laughed and…

He got to the door, stumbled out…

The girl…I can still…

A car parked by the pump where she…

Jesus…Still lay…

He rushed over…A thirty-ish brown-haired woman pumping gas, talking on phone…

Stared at him with frown…

"Where's the…" he stared at part of the corpse underneath the woman's right front tire…

"You oughta get your garbage outta the way…I coulda blown a tire…" the woman snapped at him…Returning immediately to the phone… "So I told Mom…I'm through paying through the nose for you, you old bitch…And she starts bawling…So I hung up and…"

He went round…The body, minus severed limbs, now lying by the next pump island…Face contorted in pain?...Rage…?

He put his hands in his hair…What Hellish madness?...Right out of…

Well, one of my wilder evenings…

Dreaming…I'm dreaming…All of it…Everything…The girl, that waifish streetwalker…Drusilla?...Yes…The waking up in a shallow grave, digging out to find her waiting…The killing…Mum…Oh, God…It has to be…It has to have been a dream, all of it…And this…

He looked round…

But those aren't carriages and these are gasoline pumps…

"Hey!..." the woman on phone had hung up… "You wanna screw?...I got thirty…"

He stared at her…No, not one of them…One of me…

Still human…After a fashion…

"Your loss, pal…" she shrugged and got in her car, nearly hitting him as she drove off…

The attendant running out of the station store…Gun in hand, firing after her… "Bitch!...Come back here and pay up!..."

"Hey!..." he raced over…Trying to grab for the gun…

"You want some?..." the attendant whirled, firing…

He winced but felt only the mildest stinging…

Yep, still…One of them…

"Christ…" the attendant backed away from him… "You get outta here, you freak!...I'm calling the cops!..."…He ran back into the station store…

All right…All right…William put hand to his head…

No…He forced eyes open at the onset of the visions which gripped him on closing eyes…

Thousands…Thousands upon thousands…Men, women…Children…

And I can't even remember a name…Or a face, clearly…

Except…One…He closed eyes…Yes, I remember one…

Mother…Oh, Mother for the love of God take pity on your poor son's lost…

…Soul?...

The demon…The wish-granter, what the hell was her name…Anna?...Anya…Anya…Right…He thought as he made his way back toward the car, gallon container of gas in hand…

She said…A chance…The fate of Humanity…And of us…

Us?...He shook his head…No…There is no "us"…Cicely sent me away…

And whatever her game, this wish-granting whore…It couldn't involve Cicely being…

Here?...Alive…

Seeking me…

And as…?

Nonsense, even if the girl's not a natural, Cicely would never trade her brunette…This is some kind of cruel game, a deception…

But she was right about my strange interest in those poor girls…Whom every other of my kind runs from unless backed up by major firepower or severe threat by the current Big Bad…For Spike…

For me…They were a lure…

No…Some kind of deception…Clearly all I have waiting for me is a dreadful penance ahead…

Could that be it?...Could this be Hell and Damnation?...Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first give back a soul?...

And yet she said I had a chance not to be the victim…

To save her…And win a chance for us both…

Nonsense…A trick…All of this, an illusion…

Though one with a practical bent…I am still in the world I've existed in for a century since that night, or so it's seemed…This is Earth, best as I can make out…However bizarre the behavior of some people…

And it still seems a world in which one needs gasoline to travel…He eyed the container…

And Drusilla…Is still out there, waiting for me in that car…

Now clearly this D'Hoffryn has some delightful game in mind for me to play…What was it?...Twenty-four hours, she said?...If she can be trusted, which I'd say I have excellent reason to doubt…

But I don't have to play…In fact, there being nothing for me here…I can take action, end this here and now…He scanned the side of the highway…There…He moved to where some broken fence slats lay in a little pile…He took a piece up and eyed it…

Exit, stage right…He thought wryly…Breaking a bit off one end to form a crude point…

"Not her fine instrument, but it will do the job at hand…" he noted….

Wait…

Drusilla…

I can't leave her, that monster free to cause mayhem…That poor condemned soul crying out to me…Begging me…

Trapped like me…That night in Prague…Those poor…God…Those poor children…And she, just for an instant…Somehow broke through and cried out…

Yes, she nearly saved us both that night…We barely escaped the mob and that fire, worse luck…

God if I've done nothing else to atone for my weakness, the least I can do is not abandon her to suffer alone here, pitiful lamb…

And she's likely still sleeping…A simple, merciful thing…Not done for revenge or in hate…And then, for me as well…Freedom and peace, at last…

Right then, Walthrop…Here's your real chance to do some good…And change the damned game plan on our little demonic friend and her boss…He strode on…

Should be just another half…He peered down the road…Squinting…

Vampiral abilities or no, I still could use my old specs…

Someone coming…

Someone….Oh….

Guess the drugs weren't as effective as I'd hoped…

Drusilla was moving along, tentatively…Glancing round….Her black shawl trailing…Her gaze finally coming to fix on him…She closed, slowly…Deliberately…

Does she sense?...I'm…Different…?

His hand on the makeshift stake, now hidden against his black jacket sleeve, tensed…

One quick swipe when she moves in a bit more…

She stopped, staring at him…Swaying a little…Raising a hand as if to clear her demented mind…

"Sir…" she hesitated… "Is this Hell?..."

"Careful…" he warned her as they stood by the road…The car coming up behind them from town, headlights glaring, showing no signs of slowing as it neared them…

She watched it pass within inches, the breeze lifting her hair…

"Folks not taking much care for their neighbor this night, it seems…" he noted…

"Kill me, sir…Now…" she looked at him… "Free me from this…Torment…Before It can return and use me more…Please, Mr. Walthrop…" she begged… "Forgive me and take pity on me…"

"There is nothing to forgive…Miss…" he paused…Finally a wan smile…

"I know Spike told you my name but actually we never were properly introduced…"

"Waverly…Drusilla Waverly…" she eyed him…. "Help me, sir…I don't know if I can take my own life…But It mustn't be allowed to return…I've no right to ask your help, I know…" she pleaded…Raising hands to him as if in prayer…He patted her arm...

"You aren't to blame, Miss Waverly…" he shook his head… "I don't know who or why in this matter…God certainly must take a share of the blame…But not you…"

"I failed…" Dru shook her head… "I was not strong enough…"

"No one is…Drusilla…God knows, you know I certainly wasn't…"

"I killed you, sir…And the others, the others…" her face contorted, hands clenching…

"Angelus killed you…The demon killed the others…Dru…Miss Waverly…You've done nothing evil…You couldn't stop the creature who possessed you…"

"I must be destroyed…It might return at any moment…"

"Not for a bit…I think…" he replied, shaking head… "It must have been meant for you, too…"

"Sir?..." she eyed him…

"Someone…Perhaps even a worse beast than our counterparts…Is having a bit of fun with us, miss…"

"Fun…?" she gasped… "Is it…Him?..."

"The Beast?..."

He eyed her terrified face…Ah…

"Angelus?...No…He's off to Hell…Him and perhaps his soul, Lord knows…You do remember…?"

"I…" she hesitated… "I'm sorry…I…"

"No…Forgive me…I shouldn't try to make you remember any of that…"

"Not him?...Another?..." she stared…

"Someone wishing to have a bit of fun with me at least…Not you, I think, dear heart… Though they have a larger and more sinister purpose in mind…I am sorry you've been caught up in this…"

"It's only what I deserve for failing God…" she shook her head…

He frowned…

"I refuse to believe that, Miss Waverly…I may not have much liking for the ole fellow, but even I won't assume He's behind any of this directly…At least not without proof…"

She blanched… "I…"

He sighed… "No…" he put up a hand… "My fault…I've never learnt to control my tongue…It's got me in quite a bit of…Well…" he smiled faintly, shrugging… "As you see…Please, forgive me, I spoke out of turn…"

"I can only beg your forgiveness, sir…" she eyed him…Then looked round… "So…This is the world…Not Hell?...When I found myself here…Like this…" she indicated herself… "I was so sure…" her voice, trailing…

"For so long…I seemed…" she paused… "I knew of you and It…But…I seemed to have escaped…Thought I'd been freed…"

He stared… "She…Your counterpart…And I…Mine…Have been here, I think…Since my death…Here on Earth, that is…Assuming this is Earth…You say you were free?..."

"I don't know, sir…" she shook her head… "I felt away…Safe…Free of It…Though believe me, if I had known how you suffered…If I could have done anything…"

"I know…" he nodded… "And you did try…You did, Dru…Miss…Nearly got us killed doing it once…" smile… "Whatever Angelus intended, he failed…Your soul has stayed pure…"

"So many deaths…So much suffering…" she sighed…Staring down…

"Not by you…Now…" he smiled gently at her… "There's been enough suffering, miss…No more…At least not to ourselves by our own hands…Miss, we've done our share of it…And then some…"

She stared at his stern look…Sighed…

"Perhaps you're right, sir…It may be that it is not yet my time…What can I do?..." she asked…

"Miss?..."

"You say some creature wishes to torment you by bringing us back to this world…How can I assist you?..."

"Miss Waverly, I think it may be…"

"Dangerous?..." she now gave a wan smile…Shrug… "We are dead, sir…There should be little that we need fear…"

"I don't know what it may involve…You have a soul again, miss…Perhaps…"

"My soul…And my life…Are in God's hands, sir…I was wrong to try and take that decision into my own…God has given me a chance to prove myself at last, after so long…Please let me help you, if and while I can…I owe you that much and more…"

"No, you don't…You owe me nothing, miss…"

She looked at him a long moment…

"Nothing…" he repeated, firmly…

"Then let me do it as a friend…For the friendship your soul extended to me in my agony…William…" she said, simply…

"Here?..." Dru looked at the gas station store as she stood by their car…William closing his door…

"It's where I first noticed something wrong…And felt…Myself, again…" Will nodded… "But careful…" he nodded at the police car now parked by the store…

A loud scream of agony from within…She gave a stricken cry and raced for the store door, not waiting for him…

"Hold it, lady…" a voice from the police car…She halted…

"Police business here…Get lost…" the cop rose out of his car…

"Unless you want a little…Quick justice…" he grinned… "I'd say that car of yours won't look too good on a check…" he nodded at the battered Spikemobile…

Another scream…

"Do something!...Someone is being killed in there…" she pleaded… "Oh, I'm sorry but…" she hurried on into the store as Will reached the door just after her…

"Hey!..." the cop cried…

They burst in to find the young attendant on the floor…Two cops pouring hot, scalding coffee on him…On face, on chest…The boy howling…

"These doughnuts are stale…" one officer sneered at the boy… "And as for this pastry…" he tossed a cheese Danish at the writhing boy as his partner delivered a hard kick…

"Hey!..." the second officer yelped in surprise as he was tossed back against a counter of dangerously caloric snacks…

"Here…" Dru knelt over the screaming boy as he twisted…

"You just got yourself in bad with the Law, lady…" the officer who'd had complaints as to quality of goods glared at her…

Then, relenting slightly…

Not too bad…

She stared up at him…Arm round the boy…

Will now at her side, eyeing the officer…The second officer now picking himself off the floor…

"But I could be persuaded to overlook this infringement of the penal code…If you're very good, little girl…" the first officer leered…

"Get out of here…" William told him…Coldly…

"Get…" he repeated…

The officer eyed him…

"Give him a good one, Harry…" the second officer had staggered over to his partner…

"F-you…" the first sneered… "A girl just knocked the guts outta you, Sidney…"

"I told you to go…" William told the first officer quietly… "Don't make me say it again…"

"You got a big mouth, buddy…Want it even bigger?..." the officer pulled out his gun…

"Please…Just go…" Dru stared at him… "You need to go…You have business elsewhere…"

She stared…He, blinking… Yeah…

"Come on…We got business…And we don't want any extra paperwork…" he pulled at his partner…

"You don't want to stay here…" Dru eyed the partner… "You're hurt and you want to get out…"

"Lets go…" the partner nodded…Grabbing at his side… "I got find a hospital…"

"The hell I'm driving you…" the first officer said…

"Night, folks…" he called back to the group…The boy cradled in Dru's arms…Dru knelling on the floor…William standing, eyeing the retreating cops…

"Terrible…Hideous…" Dru shook her head…

"Must be new, from LA…" Will noted…

"No, not them…" she shook her head…Absently patting and stroking the wounded boy whom she had set gently down on her shawl, pulled from her shoulders…

"…what was done to them…" she sighed… "And this poor boy…"

He looked at the boy…

Hmmn…Well the burns aren't too bad…

"His soul, sir…And the policemen…Gone…" she shook her head sadly…

"Gone…?"

"You must sense it a little…That they are different…"

"But they didn't…They aren't vampires…Or any kind of demon I know of…"

"No…Worse…" she said…Frightened look… "They are simply humans who have lost all their Humanity…"

Having done what they could for the boy…Calling an out-of-town ambulance, treating his burns with first aid creams from the store, and giving him what pain-killer was available, William and Drusilla had left the store and had returned to their car…Trying to determine a course of action…

"A trade-off…" he suggested as they sat…

"We get back ours and a few locals lose theirs…At least for a day or so…?"

"Very likely, sir…But…" Dru pondered…

"What have they (whoever) done with the souls…And how many more are affected?...Perhaps we should try to see what's happening in the town…?"

"I imagine it's not good…" he frowned…

"She said…" he paused…Eyeing Dru… "I would have the chance to save her…"

"Cicely?..." Dru asked…

"You remember Cicely?..."

"I remember everything up to a point…And especially Cicely…It hated her…" she said quietly… "Every time your demon…Spike…Came close to mentioning her name, It raged…And despaired…But it was too late to harm her, poor thing, she was long dead…"

He nodded…

"And now, somehow…" Dru considered… "She is back…Looking for you?..."

"I can't trust what this Anya said…" Will shook his head… "Cicely never loved me…She wanted me gone and that was that…There'd be no reason…"

"There'd be every reason, I'd say, William…" Dru replied… "Drusilla didn't find you by accident that night…"

He stared at her…

"You were murdered, Mr. Walthrop…Very deliberately…"

They drove carefully along the highway into Sunnydale…Dru trying to concentrate and sense…Anything…

"So…" he paused… "Sorry…"

"No, it's fine…" she shook her head… "I sense great chaos but it's impossible to get specifics yet…What did you want to ask?..."

"This creature…In Cicely's form?...Approached you…It…That night?..."

"She offered you to It…Yes…And she was in your beloved's form…I saw the real one myself…It did, I mean…Shortly before I…It…" she hesitated…

"It…Killed me...Not you…" he said, sternly…

"She was definitely sent to use It to kill you…Why, I can't say…But someone wanted you dead…And transformed…For some dark purpose…"

"Cicely…Being thorough…?" he sighed… "She might not have been aware of what she'd done, if D'Hoffryn was involved…" he gave a sheepish look at her serious glance… "He's famed for trapping the unwary…" wan smile…

"Perhaps that explains it…She wished to make amends?..." Dru noted… "But if this girl…This Slayer…?"

"Miss Summers…She didn't seem to know me…And while I've changed a bit…"

"Reincarnation…Yes…Not impossible…In fact…" she hesitated…

"It could explain my own situation…"

"Dru?..."

"I remember another life…Vaguely…Not my original one, back with my parents and my uncles…Another…I remember a town, like my old one but not the same…And not in England…Here…In America…"

"Reincarnated…You?...But if that's true…"

"Then my current self has been robbed of a soul…As I was…" she nodded…

He blinked at her steady look, quickly returning his gaze to the road…

"Then you have my profound apologizes, Miss Waverly…I'm truly ashamed to have put you in this situation…"

"No..." Dru replied… "If this is my chance to help you in any way…To make some amends…"

She smiled wanly at his glance…None of that, girl…

"To defeat those who condemned us…I'm happy to have it…I simply must trust to God that my current human self will do no harm while I'm here…But this girl…Miss Summers…"

"I never sensed…Well…" he pondered, watching the road…Passing a recently replaced "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign… "Perhaps there was something…Hard to say…It did feel…"

"Lets assume for now this Anya wasn't lying about this…And this young woman is Cicely reborn…As well as a vampire Slayer…Could she help?..."

"Anya was quite clear she would be needing my help…" he sighed… "I guess we can assume she's affected by this too…"

"Dear God…" Dru blanched… "Soulless, like the others?...And these…Slayers?...Are very powerful, true?..."

"Very…" he nodded… "If she's become like the others…I'd say heroics here will be a bit difficult…"

"We should be on guard then…And approach her with extreme caution…"

"Soulless or no, that would be true…We're still vampires, after all…And she's not one to take chances with the likes of us…" he sighed…

"Oh, my…William…." Dru pointed… "Look at those children…"

He looked where she'd pointed out her window…To see a row of children in nightdress…Pyjamas, nighties…None older than four or five…Twenty or so…Wandering…

A car racing by nearly hit theirs…Stopping with sudden halt by an appliance store…A couple getting out…The woman pointing at the store window, the man taking a sledgehammer from the rear of the car…He tossed it at the window, shattering it and setting off alarms…They climbed in, grabbing at various items…The children looking over…Racing their way…

The man threatened them with his hammer and they fell back…Waiting, greedy-eyed…

"Look…" Dru gasped… "More…"

Children wandering down the street…Some older, most quite young…

"The parents are abandoning them…" she looked at him… "We must stop this…"

A young, dark-haired, twentysomething woman in sweater and skirt hurrying down the street…Pausing to stare at the wandering children…

Some of them eyeing her coldly…Others looking her over, the same greedy stare as they'd given the couple looting the appliance store…

"No…" she waved two off… "Keep back!...I'll hurt you!..." she stepped back…

"She's like us…" Dru stared…

"Please…You have to go home…Get away from here!…Don't you understand?..." the woman cried…One little girl grabbing a necklace around her throat…Pulling it tight…Breaking it loose as the woman struggled, then running off down the street…Several following after her…Calling to her…Threatening…

"Miss!..." Dru had rolled the car window down… "William, stop!..."

He pulled the car over to the curb…

"No!..." the woman backed away… "I'm a monster!...I'll hurt you!...Keep away!..."

"You won't hurt us…" Dru called… "We're of your kind…"

She stared at Dru… "My…?"

"Monster!..." she cried… "You keep away from these kids!..."

"No, miss…" Dru called… "We've regained our souls, like you…I swear, it's all right…Come…"

The woman eyed her…

"You can sense it…Just reach out…" Dru nodded… "We only want to help, like you…"

She opened the car door… "Please…It's all right…"

The woman approached…Staring… "You…I know you…You're Drusilla, the one…The one they kept in the cellar…That boy that night they brought me in…And that maniac…The blonde guy…"

"Yes…" Dru nodded… "But it is all right…You can sense I'm not lying to you…"

The woman came closer…Shaking…Finally stopping just in front of Dru…

William looking over saw the woman's sweater was stained…

Blood…

"What's happened?..." the woman asked…

"We don't know…" Dru shook her head… "Not for certain…But we must try and help these children…Get them to shelter…"

"Help them?..." the woman stared… "I was killing them…Two little girls…Just before…They thought I was going to take them for ice cream…They trusted me…"

"A demon it was that did that…Not you…"Dru insisted… "We'll tell you what we know…But for now, we must do what we can to help them…Please, miss…"

"Ok…" the woman nodded, rubbing her head… "Maybe you're right…"

"Do you know the area?...Is there a place nearby…?"

"There's a school there…" she pointed… "I saw…" she said, woodenly… "I saw a lady slam her little girl into a lamppost…Just now…But she wasn't…Like me…"

"Something terrible has happened…" Dru nodded… "But we will deal with that later…" she got out…Will coming from his side… "I still have some ability to influence, it seems…Lets try and herd them, get them to the school…They'll be safer there…"

"I'm afraid…I'll…" the woman stared down… "Look…Their blood's all over me…Oh, God…"

William came over…Took off his leather jacket and gently put it round her…Zipping it up…She staring at him…He patted her and she burst into sobs…Grabbing at him, he holding her…Soothing her…

"You won't hurt them…" Dru said firmly… "It wasn't you that harmed the others…" She came over, taking the woman from William…Rocking her in her arms… "Come, come lets do what we can while God has given us this chance…"

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

Part II…

"Sunset…"

Part II…

"Caryn…?" Dru turned to the vampiress she and William had found wandering the streets with the abandoned, soulless children of Sunnydale… "Can you check those alleys?...Try waving the toys if they hide from you…William?...Can you take the other side?...I have to keep focused if I'm to hold them…" she looked back to the line of children, ranging from barely two to young teen following her like ducklings…

"Right, love…" Will nodded, grabbing a couple of bright flashing toys from the bag he filled in passing a smashed toy store window and tossing it to Caryn who pulled out several and passed it onto Dru…

"Dru?..." Caryn paused…Looking nervously at the first alley…

Alone with innocent children…In the dark…Like…?

"You'll be fine…" Dru nodded… "Your soul won't let them be hurt…"

The woman nodded and hurried into the alley… "Hey…We've got toys here, guys!" she called…

"You are a noble soul, Dru Waverly…" William smiled at Dru, then turned and raced for the side street on his side…Dangling the brightly lit toys from his hands…

"Come, children…" Dru intoned softly to the line following her… "Come…We've lovely things for you…"

The children they could find wandering safely herded into the gym of the elementary school Caryn had led them to…They'd secured the main door with a chain William had found in the maintenance room and come back to the street outside…

"Well…The kiddies should be fairly safe for now…" Will noted…

"What if…" Caryn eyed them… "The others, like us…But not…This way…Come…"

"Judging by the way this is playing out…" William shrugged… "I'd said it's likely every vampire in Sunnydale has a soul…"

"Still…Caryn has a point…" Dru said…Glancing at the school… "Until we know for certain…And the children are likely to fight amongst themselves…" she eyed Caryn…

"I'll stay…" she nodded…Wan smile… "I was a kindergarten teacher…Once…"

"We'll check back with you every hour…" Dru promised…"And any other children we find, we'll send here…"

"Ok…But leave me that…" Caryn pointed to the crude stake Will still carried… "I won't be the cause of more death…If I think I'm reverting…"

"Yes…" Dru nodded… "I understand…Give it to her, Will…She won't do anything unless she has to…"

"Not while they need me and I can help…" Caryn agreed… "What will you do?..."

"Try to find the Slayer, I'd say…If we can…" William shrugged… "Hopefully she's home sleepin' through this after all she's been through the past few with Angelus…"

"Be on guard…Of her and the other humans…" Dru noted… "As well as our kind, should any not be souled…Just concentrate on me and I'll hear…We'll come…Though most who are awake now seem to be further downtown…Looting and pillaging, I'd suppose…You shouldn't be bothered…"

"All right…" Caryn turned…Hesitating… "How long?..." she said, not turning to look back at them…

"We think about a day…" Dru said… "But that may be a lie…"

"A day…" Caryn sighed…Turning to them now… "I suppose half of it we'll be trapped indoors…"

"Likely so…Our bodies haven't changed…" Will nodded…

"Well…Will be nice to work with kids again…For a little while…Though if there were time…"

"Perhaps there will be…" Dru smiled kindly…

"I don't even know if they're still here…Or if they know…About me…I probably shouldn't…"

"If we can…I'll go with you…We won't intrude, just make sure they're well…" Dru, gently…

"Thanks…" Caryn smiled back… "And maybe…If you guys stop by a clothes store?..." she glanced down at Spike's jacket… "Size 10?...Brown or maybe light green?..."

"Not a problem…" Will smiled…

"Dru?...If…" Caryn eyed her…

"If…We'll do our best to help you destroy It…" Dru nodded…

"Thank you…" Caryn turned and made for the school entrance…

"Well?..." Dru looked at Will… "Shall we go find our nemesis and see if she can still listen to reason?..."

Wan grin…She shrugged… "I know…Reason, from me?..."

"She's seen stranger things, I'd guess…" William returned the grin…

Sound of running, panting…

"Come on, come on…" a slender, light-haired fellow in suit called to his companions…One, a heavy-set black-haired man in dark suit…The other, a red-headed woman, about forty in appearance, in casual clothes… "We've gotta get outta here…" the first speaker insisted…

"No…" the heavy-set man shook his head… The red-head eyeing him…

"She'll kill us…"

"I don't care…" the dark-haired one looked back… "I don't want to…Exist…Like this…Let her do it…I'd rather be dead than this way…"

"You're right…" the woman nodded… "I won't hurt anyone else…Let her kill me…"

"You're both crazy…" the first 'man' shook head at them… "We're not responsible for what happened…We didn't ask for this…I'm not gonna die here…I'm alive again and that's all that counts…!"

"Then go on…" the heavy-set one pointed… "We'll keep her busy for a minute or two…Go…"

"And leave my party?..." a soft voice cooed… "Oh, don't do that…" a figure stepped out of the shadows of the cemetery behind them…

"We're not what you think…Slayer…" the slender one pleaded…As Buffy Summers, in rather elegant outfit, a light green gown and shawl, snatched just a few minutes ago from her favorite department store downtown…With bright, warm smile…Moved into the light of a streetlamp…

"I think…You just came outta that crypt, back there…" she eyed him… "And that puts you at the top of my party list…"

"You can't…We're not responsible…!"

The heavy-set 'man' stepped forward…The woman beside him… "Run!..." he called to the slender one as they moved to block the Slayer from him…

"Now that's loyalty…" she cooed…Nodding…Taking careful aim, she hurled her stake between them to hit their fleeing companion, instantly dusting him…

"You should have let him go, miss…" the woman shook her head… "He was telling the truth…Something's happened…We're not…What we were…"

"Like I give a fuck…" Buffy smiled… "Now…While I go dig Mr. Pointy out of your friend's ashes…Why don't you two get started making this fun for me and run…Different directions and I'll give you a whole sixty seconds…"

Well?...She eyed the two…

"Do what you have to, miss…" the 'man' shrugged… "We want to die…We can't bear this anymore…This nightmare…"

"Now that's a disappointment…" she frowned…Heading past them to reach the pile of ash where Mr. Pointy lay…

"I've been having one hell of a night what with all of you guys stretching out before me, asking me to 'end this torment' and all that crappola…What's up?..." giving a single, sharp heave to pull the stake out and turning to face them…

"God knows…" the woman shook her head… "We just suddenly found ourselves…Back…"

"I was hopin' from your pal's fine sense of self-preservation, you guys might be a bit of a challenge…" she sighed… "This is getting' borin', ya know?..."

"What's wrong with you, Slayer…?" the woman stared… "You sound like one…Of us…"

"Now that's an insult…" Buffy waged a finger… "Bye…" she dusted the woman…Cocking her head at the man…

"Pity your girlfriend had a big mouth…She's right…I am feelin' a little off color tonight…" she eyed him…Twisting a bright bracelet on her wrist…Flitched from the jewelry counter of said department store…

"You any good in the sack, big boy?..." she asked, smiling at him again… "This virgin's lookin' to lose it but I haven't found a real Unman in this burg tonight…And as for the happy meals…Plllease…"

"What?..."

"I asked if you could get it up…For the sake of extendin' your existence another fifteen or so…Maybe longer if I enjoy myself…" she smiled…

"You can't screw a vampire…" he said, rather shocked tone… "You're the Slayer…What is wrong with you?..."

"Ok, now you're wounding my fragile ego…" she glared… "The Slayer says…Get your pants off…"

"I'm a married…Well, I was…Man…I won't do that…" he replied… "Young lady…You need help…"

"Really?...Well, here's the deal…Get…Them…Off…" she repeated…Eyeing him up and down… "Or I will make it hurt…A lot…"

"Slayer…Something terrible's happened to you…" he shook his head… "Some kind of Evil influence…You don't want to do this…It's not right…"

"Now vamps are giving me moral lectures?..." she sighed… "Ok…Bye…" she staked him…

"Bet you regret it now, huh?..." she sneered at the dust cloud…

"I think I know that girl…"William pointed to the pharmacy down the street from them, close upon the downtown section where most of Sunnydale's adults seemed busy looting or fighting…Like demons, acting solely on instinct, Dru noted…

"The red-headed one?..." Dru looked…

"She's a friend of the Slayer…" he stared where Willow in her usual sedate outfit was coming out of the store, carrying a bag… "She may know…Hey!..." he called… Ummn…Right… "Willow?..."

Willow turned, staring…A frightened look as she recognized him…

"Is she?..." he looked to Dru who nodded… 'Fraid so…

"You?..." she gasped… "You keep away from me…!" she pulled out a cross…

Hmmn…Not that it would normally deter me that much…But…Nothing…Will thought…

"Miss…Willow…I won't hurt you…" he pleaded… "Something dreadful has happened and…"

"The Slayer's my best friend…She'll kill you if you hurt me!..." Willow glared… "You, too…" she looked at Dru, who put up a hand…

"We mean you no harm, Willow…" Dru said, quietly… "Please…William is telling the truth…You know something is wrong here…"

"What?..." Willow stared… "Go to Hell!...I'll have the Slayer kill you if you don't get outta here!..." she backed away…

"Willow…" Dru said, slowly… "It's all right…You can trust me…Look at me…You know I won't hurt you…"

Willow staring…

"No!..." she cried, hurrying back…

"She has power…" Dru shook her head… "Sorry…"

"It's fine…Lets try the standard method…" Will shrugged…

They raced down after her…

"There…That car!..." Dru pointed… "Willow!...Wait!..." she called…

William hurrying along, squinting… Damn…I have got to get new specs…Ah, there…

Willow fumbling with car keys…Bit more difficult they not being her own…She found the right key and unlocked…

"Stop!..." Dru had reached the door, grabbing her arm…Pulling out and tossing the key back toward William…

"Get away…!" Willow tried to slip back across the seat to the other door… "You bitch from Hell!..."

"Not tonight…" Dru said…Grabbing her arm… "Listen, Willow…I'm not going to harm you!...I…"

She caught sight of the unconscious boy in the back of the car…Dark-haired…Willow catching her glance…

"He's mine!..." Willow suddenly raged… "You can't have him…Xander is mine!..."

Dru stared at her…

"Mine!..." Willow repeated…As William reached them…

"The poor girl is in a sad state…" Dru shook her head at Willow… "But I can't seem to break through…She has some natural ability, power…"

"The Slayer will kill you when she knows you're here…You're dead!..." Willow fumed… "Get outta here!..."

"We need to find out what she knows…At least if she knows where Miss Summers is…" William noted… Eyeing Dru…

"I hate to do it, but…" he gave an apologetic look…

"I don't know…They must be very susceptible to demons now…It could allow one to seize her…" Dru noted…

Willow eyed them…

"Don't hurt me…I'll help you…" Willow said… "I can show you how to get into her place…You can kill her…Just don't hurt me…"

"You don't know what you're saying, miss…" Dru sighed… "Please…Try to calm down…"

"I'll be as careful as I can…Just enough to put her in light thrall…"

"All right…But…" Dru glanced nervously at Willow… "Stop if I sense anything dangerous…Threatening…"

"Of course…" he nodded…

"Buffy…" Willow called… "Buffy!..." she screamed… "Goddamn you, you goy bitch!...Where are you when I need you!..."

"Willow, I won't hurt you…" Will sighed, climbing into the car… "I only want to help end this…"

"Xander!...Help me!..." she screamed… "NO!..."

Dru averting her eyes…God, forgive us…

The trio strolled carefully along what William identified as Main Street, downtown Sunnydale, avoiding the horde of humans now demolishing the major stores and restaurants…Cars whizzing by, most loaded with plunder…

Well, at least two did…Willow rather stumbling along in light thrall…

"He wouldn't be with me…" Willow noted blankly to William's question about the unconscious Xander…

"So I drugged him…But I needed more…And something to get him goin'…"

"'Goin'?'..." Dru quoted, puzzled…

"You don't want to know, dear heart…" Will sighed…

"You mean...?"

"This stuff'd make him stiff as a board…" Willow noted…Blankly…Indicating the bag by her side…

"While he was unconscious?...That's dreadful…" Dru stared…

"I want him…He's mine…" Willow said, quietly…

"Determined girl…" Will noted… "He's a lucky so-and-…"

Sorry…He eyed Dru's frown…

"Willow?...Where is Miss Summers?..." Dru asked…

"That bitch…She outta be here, protecting me…" Willow replied…

"Let me try…" Will suggested… "Willow, girl…I want a straight answer…Where's the Slayer…?"

"On Patrol…" Willow answered…

"'Patrol'?..." Dru stared…

"Hunting our kind…Protecting the city…" William explained… "But, I wouldn't've thought…Willow, was she…Normal?..."

"She'd be here, trying to help her friend…" Dru shook her head…

"Bitch took the dress I wanted when we went into the store…Wouldn't come with me to get Xander…"

"Doesn't sound like she's the same Slayer I met…" William eyed Dru… "You're right, she'd never leave a friend actin' like this…"

"Does she have anyone…Slayers have advisors, don't they…?" Dru, trying to remember…

"A Watcher, yes…A scholar who knows the occult, a Mr. Giles in this case…But he's likely gone like the rest…" Will frowned…

"The poor man, the Beast…In front of me…" Dru closed her eyes… "And I helped…Oh, those memories are coming back now…" she shuddered…

"Dru…" Will eyed her… "I need you…"

"I'm all right…" she shook her head… "Just trying to remember…Yes, I remember him…Willow, do you know where Mr. Giles is…Or might be…"

"Giles?...Gone…LA…To report to someone…" Willow said, wanly… "He should've been here to help me…Bastard…"

"LA?..." William looked at Willow… "You're sure?..."

"Yeah…"

"He might be a help then…" Dru noted… "If we could just reach him…If he's outside the radius of influence and has knowledge of the occult, he might be able to break this curse or spell or whatever it is…"

William nodded…Worth a try…

"Willow?...Do you have a way to reach Mr. Giles?...A phone number?..."

"Buffy does…"

Hmmn…He eyed Dru…

Well, back to square one…

"There must be a place he's staying…Something connected with his group of Watchers…" Dru noted… "They're based back home, aren't they?...England?..."

"Yeah…We could try giving them a call…"

Hello, Watchers Council?…William the Bloody here, with soul…Just wanted to tell you your Slayer's lost hers and…Click…He thought…

Still, worth a try…They've seen stranger, no doubt…

"Perhaps…But if he's English and an occult scholar…"

"And a high school librarian…" Will noted…

Sounds like a back-up career for me, if I retain the soul…He thought, wryly…

"There can't be too many places in Los Angeles where he and his people would be meeting…" she suggested…

"Well, it does give us two additional avenues to pursue…Though our immediate problem is…"

"Right here…" Buffy said, broad smile…Stake gripped

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

"Sunset…"

Part III…

"Hey…My ole favorite vamp bud and his dead whore…And with my best friend in their fiendish grip…" Buffy grinned… "Say, Willow, that zombie look is you…Didn't you guys have time to finish her off?...I can wait a few, if you want…"

Dru eyed William…William, Dru…

"Now don't tell me you two are gonna do the… 'oh, kill me now, end this torment, Slayer' crap now?..." Buffy frowned… " 'Cause I gotta tell you I'm getting awful bored…And you won't like what I do when I'm bored…"

"Cicely…" Drusilla eyed her sternly… "You're needed…"

Buffy stared at her…Blinking…

"Listen to me…William is here…"

"What?..." Buffy looked at her, then Will…Shaking head…

"Geesh, she's crazier than usual, isn't she?…" she noted…But seemed a bit dazed…

"Cicely…You must save him…" Dru, insistently…Her stare boring deep… "You've waited this moment for a century…He needs you…"

"Who?..." Buffy swayed a bit…

"You…" her face darkened… "You whore…" she stared…

"Cicely?..." William stared…The clipped British accent most startling of all…

"William…" she looked at him… "Good…You survived…" she turned to Dru…

"Now as for you, whore…We have business to settle…" she tensed, stake quivering in her grip…

"No, Cicely…" William began…

"Quiet…I'll deal with her…" Buffy said, coldly… "Now…Drusilla…Time for you to learn what happens to vampiral whores who steal husbands…"

"What?..." William stared…

"Memories…Not soul…" Dru looked at him…

"Ranting as ever, eh?..." Buffy sneered… "Come, lets do this in the open air…I wouldn't want your ashes to have contact with my husband…We've had quite enough of that…"

"Husband…?"

"I said, be quiet, William…Will you never listen?..." Buffy, glaring… "Go and wait for me…Watch if you like…"

"Dru has a soul, Buffy…Cicely…"

"Is that so?...How quaint…Just like Angelus…" she said, coldly…

"And right now, you don't…" he noted…

"What?..." she stared…

"Though I do, so perhaps we're no worse off…"

"What nonsense is this?..." Buffy frowned…

"Tell me who you are…" William asked…

"You know very well…" she replied…Folding arms… "Is this to protect your whore?...Have you grown fond of her over the years?..."

"Tell me…"

"Cicely Anne Addams Walthrop…" Buffy frowned… "And what do you mean, I've no soul…?"

"Courtesy the demon lord D'Hoffryn…" William replied… "But the memories you've just regained are courtesy Miss Drusilla Waverly…"

"Indeed…" Buffy, coldly…Dru standing by Willow… "Well, thank you Ms. Waverly…I shall make your agonizing death a tad less so in gratitude…William, go over there and wait or I shall be angry with you…"

"And what, love…Stake me?..."

"You belong to me…Not her…" she said, icily… "And I'll see you dust before I'll let her have you again…"

"I'm not here to take him from you, Cicely…" Dru pleaded… "I'm here to help…There's a terrible Evil afoot…You must sense something's wrong with you…Your friends…These people…" she waved arms…

"I've waited a hundred years to tear you limb from limb, vampiress…" Buffy, grimly… "A little fairy tale about lost souls won't deter me…And if William has decided your body is preferable to mine…"

"He's loved you for over a century…Believed in you and that you'd save him…You can't betray him now…"

Buffy eyed her…Reflected a moment…Then leapt at her before William could intervene, stake under her grabbed and held chin…

"Killing the whore who killed him is hardly betraying him…" she noted, quietly…Forcing Dru's head back with the stake… "Beg for death, whore…Beg I'll be mercifully quick…" she pulled Dru's head back more… "Say it!..."

"Stop it, Cicely!..." William grabbed at her…

"This'll hurt you too, liar!...Adulterer!..." Buffy waved the stake at him… "You worthless, unfaithful…!" she raged…

Dru grabbed her arm, forcing it back…Uhh…The stake dropped with a clatter…

"Let me go, you!..." Buffy cried…

"We're telling you the truth…I could kill you now…" Dru told her, holding her arm…

"William!...Help me!..." Buffy looked to him…

"Dru isn't lying, Cicely…" Will shook his head… She kicked back, throwing Dru off balance…Racing back..

"Right then…" she eyed them… "Let it be war on you both!..." she ran off, disappearing into the crowds all along the street…

"Well…" William eyed a shaken Drusilla, helping her up…

"That went rather better than I expected…"

"I'm sorry…" Dru sighed…Carefully guiding Willow along…

"No need…" Will shrugged…

"I honestly thought I might reach her…That Cicely's soul might be better protected…" sheepish look…

"Well…You did reach her…In quite spectacular fashion…" he noted…

"And now it seems I've a bitterly jealous spouse determined to have me or dust me…"

"That may be the best news…" Dru reflected… "I mean…" she caught his frown… "She didn't re-engage and kill you…She could have…She's taking her time, trying to capture you…She won't hurt you…"

"I wouldn't count on that, love…" he smiled wanly… "She seemed quite willing to sacrifice me on the altar of marital fidelity…"

"I don't think so…Though we shouldn't press our luck, true…" Dru pondered… "I think it's a sign…Cicely is near…The soul I mean…Trying to help…I know I sensed something…Faintly…"

"Well, kudos for a good try, girl…" he smiled… "What about Red, here?..." he indicated Willow…

"I think we need her a bit longer…" Dru noted…

"Yes…This is Willow Rosenberg…" Willow said, a bit more energetically than in her recent conversations…

"A little more urgency…" Dru hissed…Willow staring at her as she spoke into the phone in the bar they'd temporarily holed up in…

"Willow Rosenberg…"Willow repeated… "A friend of the Slayer's in Sunnydale…Please…I have to reach Mr. Giles, Buffy's Watcher…Can you help me?..."

William scanning the entrance…No sign of a rampaging Slayer spouse as yet…

Dru listening to the phone's receiver intently, standing just by Willow's ear…

"Hello?...Yes…Yes…I'm Willow Rosenberg, Buffy Summers' friend…The Slayer's friend…Please, I have to reach Mr. Rupert Giles…There's been a terrible disaster here in Sunnydale…"

William came over…Dru looked at him…Not yet…

"Tell them their damned Council's about to be destroyed…" he suggested to Willow…Who looked at him a little blankly…

Yes, William…she soundlessly murmured…Dru having cautioned her not to speak to them aloud…

"Sir…Your damned Council's about to be destroyed…Thank you…"

"Thought that might speed things along…" Will noted to Dru…

"Yes?...Hello…Who?...Oh, hello…" Willow said, a bit flatly again…

William eyed her…Who?...His look clear…

"Mr. Travers, who says he's Chairman of the Watchers…" Willow hissed…

Nice…But we went past our floor, I think…

"Yes, the situation here is very terrible, Mr. Travers…Can I speak to Rupert Giles?..."

Hmmn?...Willow looked at the phone…

"What is it?...I…"

"Here, love…" William took the phone… "Hello, Mr. Chairman…William Soames Walthrop here…Nice to finally speak to you after all these years…Listen, the demon lord D'Hoffryn's gone and put a soul removal/soul curse spell or something on Sunnydale…Yes, involving Miss Summers and then some…Yes, this is the William you're thinking of…But the demon has vacated for a day or so…Look, D'Hoffryn's minion told me that Humanity as well as Miss Summers was in peril if this thing…Whatever it is…Wasn't stopped or defeated before twenty-four hours was up…Yes…Quite specific about it…We could use some help here, especially if you lot care about the fate of Humanity…Well, it seems her whole lot and every human here has gone soulless…But every vamp seems to have a soul…Yes, that includes Drusilla…No, Miss Rosenberg's gone and lost hers as well…She's under my thrall, for which I deeply apologize but there was no other way to contact you…Is there any chance of speaking to Mr. Giles?...Good…Thank you…"

Direct approach…Usually best…He noted to Dru and the blank-eyed Willow…

"…Hello Mr. Giles?...Yes, this is who Mr. Travers told you…No, Spike is off on vacation, this is the soul of William Soames Walthrop…Cicely's husband…"

Hmmn…He smiled at Dru…"I think I heard a pin drop on that side…"

"Oh, yes…Cicely Addams…Walthrop…Your great nineteenth century Slayer?...Now back in the form of your own Miss Summers…No, not possession, Mr. Giles…As I suspect you know…She's a reincarnate…But currently, soulless, like everyone else human in this benighted town…Mr. Giles…Mr…Giles…If D'Hoffryn's minion, a Miss Jenkins, wasn't lying we have only twenty-two…" he eyed a clock over the bar… "…twenty-one…hours to set this right…Well…I have Drusilla Waverly…And a very nice young ex-kindergarten teacher who's watching the kiddies of the town…There may be other souled vampires willing to help…That's about it…No, your Miss Rosenberg is like the others…I had to put her in thrall to get her to call you…Mr. Giles…I am sure you know more about Cicely and me than you are letting on but as to my lying about 'everything' I'm sure you lot have the power to check out my story pretty quickly…If nothing else, send someone into Sunnydale to observe…Believe me, they'll find proof very quickly…No, Buffy is soulless not transformed…Certainly…"

He pulled the phone away… "Miss Rosenberg?...Would you speak to Mr. Giles?...Just answer his questions truthfully, please?..." he held the phone to Willow's ear and mouth…

"Yes?...Yes, Giles, Spike has me in thrall…I don't know…They say I have no soul now…I dunno…I feel different, I guess…No, before Spike put me in thrall…Yeah, everyone's actin' weird…Yeah, Buffy, too…She's speaking with a Brit accent and seems kinda nasty…Xander?...I drugged him and put him in a car I stole…So I could have him, he belongs to me, you know…No, I did that before Spike put me in thrall…I guess that could mean he's tellin' the truth about souls goin' bye-bye…Ok…"

"He wants to talk to you…" Willow looked over to William…

"So…Any suggestions or concrete help you can offer would be appreciated, Mr. Giles…" William noted… "Especially as Buffy seems to have recovered some ole memories of us and wants me to resume my position as her husband…" he eyed Dru and Willow…

Ha, hah…Willow gave a slight laugh…

"Yeah, that did get him…"Will nodded…Dru giving reproving look…

"How soon?...All right, granted…" he shrugged…

"He doesn't trust us…" Dru offered…He nodding…

"But help is coming, right…?" he asked the phone… "Good…We'll try to keep Buffy and the good people of the town alive until your Council reaches a decision…Try to make it within the next twenty hours, will you?...Good bye…"

Dru eyeing him…

"The Council will consider the matter and if our story is verified they will take appropriate action…" he looked at her… "Which could mean anything from they'll do nothing, to for the greater good Sunnydale will be nuked…We'll see…"

She sighed… "At least they know…And it's only natural they wouldn't place faith in us immediately…"

"Lets hope in the States they move a bit faster than back home…" he noted… "Last time I contacted them as Spike to warn them a Slayer was likely to die…Just before I killed that poor Slayer a few years ago…Two weeks wasn't enough time to get them moving…"

"It always wondered why you called…" Dru smiled faintly… "You…Spike said it was to make it a challenge…But…"

"That's sweet of you, Dru…Thanks…" he smiled back…

"Buffy won't like this…" Willow noted…Shaking head…

"Now…We're just friends, Miss Rosenberg…" Dru, gravely…

Uh-oh…She looked round…

"Someone…Fairly soulless but odd…Something is still…Anyway, human…I think…" she hissed…

"Buffy?..."

"Can't tell for sure…But I don't think so…Even Cicely has no trace of soul now…"

He looked about…

No, she'd make a big entrance…Soulless or no…Cicely or no…She never changes on that…

A crash of boxes…Even Willow jumping a bit…

He was on the fellow in an instant, a small man, weasily in aspect in nondescript clothes… "All right, you…"

"Lemme go!..." the little man in his grip…Squirming…Demanded… "This is my place!...What are you guys doin' in here?...Jesus…" he stared… "You…William the…"

"Nice to know one has a rep…" William nodded…

"No…Don't kill me…I'm part demon…I can help you…" the little man whimpered, eyeing William, then Drusilla…

"We won't hurt you…" Dru said, soothingly…Coming over by Will…

"No?..."

"Probably not…" William corrected… "If you give straight answers…Who are you?...And what are you doing here?..."

"Willie…" the man(?) answered… "Like I said, I own this place…"

"We're very sorry to trepass, then…" Dru said, kindly… "It was unavoidable…"

Hmmn…

She eyed Will… "He's not lying…He's part demon…And somehow has kept…What little soul, a very weak one…He had…"

"Neither fish nor fowl, that's me…" Willie shrugged…

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

Part II…cont…

Confinement chamber, Hell…

'Buffy' frowned at her storyteller and supposed 'sister from a parallel universe', 'Cicely'…

"So I lost my soul and regained my Cicely memories…And now I've turned against William, out of soulless jealousy?..."

"Viciously ironic, isn't it?..." 'Cicely' beamed… 'Buffy' eyeing her narrowly…

Though…It is terrible…Poor William…

Dear B'aal… 'she' blinked…That worthless Mears…He must be doing this…

"What's happening to me?..." 'Cicely' hissed to a nearby Buffy minion…This one in nurse's uniform…

"Cicely?...Aren't you feeling well?..." the 'nurse Buffy' eyed her… "Should I get you something…?"

"You know damned well what I mean…" 'Cicely' raged…But struggled to keep 'her' voice down…

"I'm D'Hoffryn, lord of all things vengeful…"

"Of course you are…" the imp in Buffy form nodded, soothingly… "But with a little rest, you'll be fine…Cicely…"

"Stop that!..." 'she' shouted…

"What's wrong?..." 'Buffy' hurried over… "Am I needed?..."

"No, no…" 'nurse Buffy' noted… "Cicely here is just a bit upset…The story she's telling being so sad…"

"It sure is…" 'Buffy' frowned… "And it better not end with me breaking William's heart…Or else…" she eyed 'Cicely'…

"Better get back to your story, sweetie…" 'nurse Buffy' nodded…Patting the somewhat dazed Cicely…er 'Cicely'… "I'm sure it has a happy ending for you and William…"

Yeah…

Wait, no…All right…All right, D-H…Finish the tale…And then get the here out of here…Back to good ole vengeance and imposition of suffering…

"Ok…So they had found the part demon, Willie…"

Monitor console in CHQ, Hell…Angelus and Mears chuckling…

"Poor thing…It's sad to watch…But I always did think D-H was unusually 'close' to his girls…" Warren, mock-solemn…Then roaring…Angelus joining in…

"God, Mears…I have to admit…" Angelus leaned back in his chair… "This is even worse than what I did to Drusilla…"

"Sunset…"

Part IV…

"And you felt nothing…No different when the others changed so suddenly?..." Dru asked…She, with Willow beside her, seated at one of the bar tables…

"Same as always…" Willie shrugged… "I figured at first it was somebody gunning for those folks with targeted magics but then I saw what was going on all over town and I came back here to hole up till things settled down or at least I could find a way outta town…"

He eyed them…Dru, pale and lovely, looking concerned, with rather less of that psycho waif look he remembered from one time when he'd seen her strolling about…That William, standing, frowning at him…Still pretty menacing in his way, even souled and even in that small package…The red-headed kid, the Slayer's pal, looking pretty much outta it…Bit, he noted…

Not likely to go over well with the Slayer…Even with soul…

"So all the vamps in town have souls now…And everyone else…Human, that is…No soul?..." he asked…

"It seems so…" Dru nodded… "Though of course we can't be sure everyone is affected…Especially given you…"

"Now there's a howl…" Willie grinned…Ummn…He caught sight of Dru's stern look…William's deepening frown…

Uh…Well… "Of course, it's terrible, too…Just, ya know…Ironic and all that jazz…"

"And you'll find out how ironic if the Slayer catches us here…Minus that usual compassion and regard for human or semi-human life…" Will noted…

"That would be bad…" Willie nodded, pensive now… "I met a turned Slayer once…She was not fun…"

"But it must be important…A clue to the cause of all this…" Dru suggested… "That he…You, sir…" she nodded to Willie… "Are still souled…Something about your nature…"

"The demon part somehow protecting him…" William eyed him…

"Can't help you there…" Willie shrugged… "I'm no big expert on the subject…"

"What about your father, the demon…?" Dru asked… "Was he unusual in any way…The species?..."

"Moray…Nothing special…They get on ok with humans, not violent, generally…I dunno…" Willie looked at them… "Look, if the Slayer's gunning for you, you'd best get outta town…She's sure to find you here sooner or later…"

"We can hope…" Dru nodded…

"What?..." Willie said…Nervous eyes darting…Hopes of offering to provide 'help' in exchange for hitching a ride under the protection of two famously mighty otherworlders fading fast…

"We're trying to help her…Not run from her…" Dru explained… "But to help her we need something, anything, that could counter whatever D'Hoffryn's done…"

A caravan, actually, considering…Well, doesn't seem likely, given the sad lack of self-preservation instinct here…Willie sighed…

Wait…

"D-H?...The revenge king?..." Willie looked at them… "One of his is here?..."

"Anya…" William noted… "Who seems the prime mover…At least the prime instrument…"

"Anyanka?...Jesus…" Willie sighed… "She's bad news…One of his best…"

William eyed Dru who nodded…

Looks like we came to the right place…If utterly by chance…

Surely God is guiding us in some way…

Willie rather convinced otherwise…Anxious now to find his own path...

After all, wouldn't want to get in the way of their efforts…Just be on his own merry…

"What can you tell us about her…?" Dru asked, kind tone… "Is there any way to break her spells that you know of…?"

"Willie?...The lady asked a question…" William frowned at the little half-man as he glanced round…Clearly seeking the nearest exit route…

"There's always a way…" Willie noted, shrugging… "But usually it involves years of study…Careful research…And a Slayer backing you up don't hurt…"

"Not enough time…We need to cut corners on the research fast track now and worry about long-term later…We'll have to make due with Dru and me instead of a Slayer for the moment…No offense dear heart…"

"Not at all…" Dru shook head… "Of course the Council could provide that research if they really are coming…"

"The Council of Watchers?..." Willie eyed them… "You're in touch with them?...You two?..."

"Yeah, welcome to bizarro-world…" Will nodded… "But given their idea of rapid response…And their inclination to stake, crossbow, burn, or set a vampire (really, no offense, love…patting Dru's hand…though plenty to them…) on one first and confirm their good intentions later…I wouldn't exactly consider them the cavalry on the way…"

"But getting back to focus…?" he eyed Willie sternly… "If you want to get out of this alive…And remarkably, no personal threat intended…If you have any ideas or first- or second-hand info…Speak up…"

Ummn…

"We don't mean to press, but anything you know could help…" Dru, gently… "And William is right…We aren't any threat to you but you are in danger here…"

"Especially should we have to battle an angry, soulless Slayer here…" William eyed him… "The property damage alone is sure to be…"

"The girl…The demon…" Willie, hastily… "They get their power from him…D'Hoffryn…It's channeled through a talisman…"

Hmmn…More than I had a right to expect…Will eyed him…

"And the talisman?..."

"Could be anything…A bracelet…A necklace…But she'll fuss with it…Never let it alone…That'll be the giveaway…"

"And summoning?..."

"Who knows…?" Willie shook his head… "D-H's got his own system…Designed to confuse…That's all I know…Honest…"

"That's very helpful, sir…" Dru beamed… "Thank you…If you'd like to try and make your escape now?...I know you're very anxious to go…"

William frowned…Not all that helpful, girl…She shrugged… "The poor man's told us what he knows…No need to put him at risk…"

Will sighed… "I suppose…" he looked at Willie who was a bit nonplussed…Go?... "All right…Well, good luck, mate…" he offered a hand…Willie, now increasingly hesitant…Go?...Out there?...Took it gingerly… "Thanks…Make for the south and keep from downtown…Well…Guess I mean get out of downtown as quick as you can…"

Uh…Willie looked over to the door…

Rampaging soulless humans…Brutally murderous Slayer…

And now, likely a pissed-off vengeance demon and her boss gunning for him out there…

And…The others…

"Uh…I'm fine here, for now…"

"Of course…" Dru nodded… "This is your place, after all…"

"Well, if you'll be staying…How's about a drink?..." William suggested… "I actually having a bit of coin of the realm about my person…" he pulled out the change from Anya's twenty…

"And something for Miss Rosenberg…?" Dru asked… "She must be thirsty…Willow, would you like something to drink…?"

"Yeah…" Willow nodded, vaguely… "But not blood…"

"Of course not…Water?...A soda?..."

"Ginger ale?..."

"Comin' right up…" Willie, rather glad to have business to focus on…

"And a whiskey…Double…" William added…

"Will…We need to decide what to do now…" Dru insisted… "We can't sit here, waiting…People are in danger…And what if some leave Sunnydale in their current condition?...We can't be sure they'd revert once out of town…"

"Love…I'd like to help…But there's only us…" he noted… "And my dear spouse seems ready to institute extreme divorce proceedings if she spots us…"

"Not only us…" Dru replied…Eyeing Willie…

"Him?..." William stared…

"Willie?..." Dru, gently…

He blinked…Ummn…

"Please…Introduce us to your friends…" she said, quietly… "It was very brave of you to protect them…"

"What?..." William stared…

"They're rather well-hidden…A spell barrier?..." she asked… "It took a moment, even for me…But I can sense a faint trace about here…"

"They're not harming anyone…" Willie insisted… "I wouldn't've done it but…They got souls now…And the Slayer wasn't listenin'…Just staking left and right…"

"And you took them in…" Dru nodded… "Willie, you are a good man…" she smiled…

"Had to do somethin'…" he shrugged… "They're in the cellar…It's where I keep contraband…Just a little stuff that wouldn't be kosher, you know…Nothing dangerous…Just special foods and things some of the folks like…Shielded so as not to give the stuff away…Just a little 'black market' stuff…Nothing bad…And only for the ones who don't make trouble…"

"Of course…" she agreed, gently… "May we meet them…?"

"Who?..." William looked round…

Willie sighed, then went over to a corner, lifting a rug…Then the trap door the rug concealed…

"Come on up, folks…It's ok…" he called…

"People!...People!..." Dru called, looking out over the group… The milling crowd of nearly seventy vampires and vampiresses slowly heeding her… "Please…"

"Come on, you lot!..." William called, standing on a table next to the one where Willow sat, sipping her ginger ale quietly…

"Hey!..." Willie banged a glass on bar…All staring… "Listen up!..."

"Right…" Dru smiled at him… "People…I know you're all confused…This has been a terrifying, if unique experience…"

"Drusilla!..." one teenaged-appearing female gasped… "Lemme out of here…She'll kill us all!..."

Some sounds of panic…Anxious glances…

Oh…My…Dru sighed…

"Quiet!..." Willie banged again, stern look… "She's just like you…Souled…Now listen up!..."

"Yes, Mr. Willie is quite right…" Dru resumed… "William and I are souled like you..."

"Can we go home now?..." one tall male spoke up… "My wife is still…"

"You can't go home, Albert…" a blonde female frowned at him… "And your wife must be dead or one of us…I transformed you sixty years ago…"

"You…Bitch…" Albert glared… "You killed me!..."

"Sorry…" she shrugged… "Someone killed me, too, you know…And you were looking for some action that night when you came up to me…"

Several angry and accusatory conversations now springing up…

"People!..." Dru cried…

More bitter words… "You made me!..." "You killed my family!...Well, I wouldn't have helped if you hadn't…" "I didn't wanna eat my dog!..." "I never said I wanted to sleep with you, I just wanted to live forever!..." "It's over, Henry…I want my own crypt!..."

She went to Willie's bar counter…Please?...He handed the heavy glass…

Slam!... "Hey!..." she hollered…A window shattering in the front…

William staring…The group staring…

"Friends…This is no time to blame each other…God knows we all feel ourselves guilty in some way…But we are also all victims…" she noted…

"Yeah!...And I want compensation!..." a heavy-set, middle-aged-looking 'woman' in frightful print blouse responded… "I was just passing through six months ago and one of you kills me…!"

"And you killed me and my little girl…!" a slender, brown-haired 'woman' in gown fumed back…"…and you made me have sex with you!..."

"That wasn't me…I'm a God-fearing Christian…" the heavy woman glared back… "I'd never…"

"Yeah, right…" the young 'woman' replied, bitter… "Can't hide it from your demon, you rapist!…And I'm through calling you, mistress, lady!..."

"Can I call my mom?..." a young male asked, raising hand… "I think I only died a week ago…"

"Enough!..." Dru cried… "And we'll see, young man…We don't want to upset your family, you know…"

"Please, friends…" she looked out over the group… "God has given us a chance to do good this night…"

"I don't believe in God…" one male spoke up…

"Fine…Fate, then…" she waved him off…No time for a religion debate… "You all know the humans of Sunnydale are afflicted…Soulless…They need our help!..."

"What's the girl…The Slayer…For?..." the heavy-set 'woman' fumed… "Let her take care of them…Instead of coming after us…"

"She's for getting rid of us…" Albert frowned… "Whatdaya mean, not come after us?...We've all been mad killers until tonight…"

"Not me…" the large 'woman' insisted… "I'm of the blessed elect…It was Satan doing the killing…"

"…And the raping?..." her former companion glared…

"The point is, people!...People!..." Dru called… "We are needed…Our human brothers and sisters…Our descendants and families…Need us tonight!...We must act to help them while they can't help themselves!..."

"No one ever helped me…" the blonde 'woman' who argued with Albert insisted… "Not even the Slayer…I was left like this for eighty years…Why should I stick my neck out to help a few mortals?..."

"Any one who doesn't want to help is welcome to stay here…" Dru noted… "But those who want to prove they are still human, inside…Can help to save Humanity tonight…Great Evil threatens the world and we have a chance here to fight back…To stop being victims, for once…"

"That's the Slayer's job…" the large 'woman' fumed… "I'm a victim…I don't have to do anything for anybody…"

"The Slayer is affected, she told you lot that…" William glared… "We're it, tonight folks…The last line…"

"What can we do?..." Albert shook his head…Several agreeing… "We're just a bunch of vamps with souls…There are thousands of crazy people out there…And a Slayer who don't take souls for an excuse…"

"We have unique abilities…We can influence human minds…" Dru noted… "And the humans are running on instinct…They will respond easily to base impulses…Fear, reward…We can use that to herd them and keep them safe through the night…Prevent more deaths…"

"And what about us?..." another woman, a tall black woman of about forty, spoke up… "What happens to us now?...Do we try to live like this?...Burning or hiding by day…Drinking blood…And from where and what?...I can't live like this…Let the Slayer or the sun take me…"

Several cries in agreement…

"Ir won't last…" Dru sighed… "By tomorrow night we'll be back…To what we were…" she eyed the suddenly still group… "I know it's horrible, but that's the truth of it…We only have about nineteen hours with our souls…"

"And you know that…How?..." the large 'woman' eyed her…

"Because I'm the cause…" William said, quietly…Firmly… "Not intentionally but there it is…"

"You?..." several stared…Others looking at each other…

Uh-oh…Willie slowly slid down behind the bar counter…

William tensing…Might perhaps have been a bit too honest on this one…

Albert started clapping…The blonde…Others joining in…

Dru stared…More joining in, some with tears running…

"Thank you!..." shouts… "William!..." Fists in the air… "Thank God!..." a few cries…

Dru looking to Will who stared, stunned…She beamed at him…

Willie rising back up…Hmmn…

"Even a day alive again…God…" Albert beamed… "To know, finally, we're still what we were…That we're still here, somewhere…Not…Those things, whatever they do…Thank you, both of you…" he came up… "What do you want us to do?...I'm in!..."

"Yeah!..." the young brown-haired ex-love slave came forward… "Count me in!..."

More stepped forward…Only a few hanging back…

"First…" Dru began…

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

"Sunset…"

Part V…

"All right…" William looked over the group as he stood on top of a parked car…The crowd now slightly expanded with the arrival of several wanderers who'd been roaming blindly in shock around town…Drawn by the scent of their fellow otherworlders now assembled in the street outside the famed…Or infamous underworld watering hole of Willie the Snitch's bar…

And like most of the refugees Willie had taken in, eager to join up…Heartbreakingly so, Dru had noted with sigh to Will…Given their likely fate…To do what could be done for their erstwhile victims…

If the Slayer had had this kind of support from the living, William wryly had noted…None of this might be necessary…

"Has everyone got their cow's blood?..." he called… "Willie?..."

"Think so…!" Willie shouted from where he stood, passing out bags…

Well, so much for my profitable trade in emergency supplies…He thought…

Still…Only one of several such profitable trades…And I do stand to do well by anything I can pick up once the downtown is secured…

Once the grave danger to Humanity's settled and all that, of course…Be a shame to leave all that looted stuff lying around, a danger to life and limb…

"It's essential you be satiated before working with the people…!" Dru, beside Will on the car roof, called… "Especially you newborns…You may find it difficult to control your bloodlust otherwise!...The last thing any of us wants is to be at risk for doing harm…Each of you has your partner…If you find yourself losing control…Or any sign of reversion, let them know at once!...Will?..."

"Right!...Now, teams one and two…Albert, you lot will take the group around the Macy's complex…It seems to be the biggest, so Dru will be leading team two…You'll focus on the humans who seem to be leading the looting…Persuade them by suggestion and the physical that there's much more enticing stuff down by the city hall plaza and Armory and lead them there… Team three, Angela…" The black female who'd spoken earlier nodded… "Your folks will do the same around what's left of the boutique shops and meet the others at the plaza…Team four, Sidney…" Will eyed a well-dressed, professorial type…In fact a former biology teacher at UCal/Sunnydale… "You've got our most sensitive people besides Dru…You'll make the sweeps of the streets of homes around downtown and see no one is wandering about, particularly any children or elderly folks…And team five…" He looked at the young male drinking from his pack of blood… "Michael, lad?...Some attention?..."

"Sorry…" Michael, a tall blonde athletic type, sheepishly put the pack down…

"You lot will patrol the streets out of town, particularly the main highway to see no one leaves town in their current state…Dru?..."

"Everyone stay in communication with Willie…Using cell phones…" she held up a phone… "If you're not familiar with modern technology, one of your team is and will assist you…It's essential we keep in touch and report any special problems, so we can focus our efforts there once the bulk of the populace is safe…"

"What about the Slayer?..." a heavily made-up female, in rather Gothic style outfit…

Kinda nice my old stuff has come back after ninety years…Asked…

"Contact Willie immediately, withdraw, and take shelter if you can…Don't try to reason with or engage her…Or any otherworlders not souled whom you may encounter…If they behave violently and aren't human…" Dru, intently… "Remember your job is to save lives…Focus on the people under your care…"

"Right…Leave the Slayer to me and team six…" William nodded… "It's me she'll be seeking…So long as you don't engage, I doubt she'll waste time on you…"

"You and Miss Rosenberg?..." Angela called… "Some of us should go with you…If we could find something to drug her with or…"

"It would only antagonize her…Believe me…" Will shook his head… "Besides, once Dru has helped get the bulk of the people herded safely, she'll join me…Miss Summers would like a word with her as well, after all…" he gave Dru a wan smile…She returning…

"What about…Sunrise…?" Albert asked… "We won't be able to help the people then…"

"We'll have a command center in the city hall by then…" Dru replied… "Hopefully, the people from the Watchers' Council will be here by then or sooner but if not, we should be able to keep the crowd herded there through the day…Any especially violent types can be brought in and confined under our care…"

"And then?..." a brunette female looked up… "We'll revert in nineteen hours, if that vengeance bitch wasn't lying?…"

"Then…If the Council hasn't arrived to help…We've done our duty and we try to help each other…" Dru replied… "Though no one will be forced to it…" she eyed the group…

"Angelus got his soul back…And kept it for a long time…" the brown-haired female in gown who'd declared her emancipation from her siress earlier noted… "Could that work for us?...Could this be made permanent?..."

"I don't know…" Dru shook her head… "Perhaps if the Council is willing to help us…We can try and speak to them when they come…Or if we could capture William's vengeance demon…But…" her voice faltered…

"And if they don't help…We go back…?" Sidney called… "And no one knows?...We're just monsters again?..."

"What matters is what we do in the time we have…" William called, firmly… "If things work out well that way with Angelus' curse or some other solution, well…Those who wish may try it…But if not…We'll know what we did…That we took our chance to help and fight like human beings against this Evil, not sit as hapless victims…As your President…Well, for some of you…Teddy Roosevelt said, to H.G. Wells once… 'The effort's worth it'…And it is…No matter what happens afterward…Our souls will know…"

"That's the stuff!..." Angela called…Fist raised…

"Yeah!..." fists risen…

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

"Sunset…"

Part VI…

"Team Six…" William spoke into his cell phone…Glancing into the window of the campaign office of the mayor of Sunnydale…Hmmn… "Vote Dick?"… "Hello, Willie…Nothing yet, just checking in…Everything going well?...Good, all right…Tell Dru we've completed a sweep from First to 10th st on Main…Nothing yet, so we'll start the side streets…All right, then…Call me at once if there are any problems…Thanks, lad…" he closed the phone…

Willow a bit blank beside him, eyeing him…

"Anything, Red?..."

"No…Not yet…" she shook her head… "Buffy is around somewhere…I feel her a little…But not here…"

"Ok…Well, we'll try two blocks over, back up to First…Just try to focus as Dru showed you…"

"Yes, William…" Willow nodded…They proceeded, she following him, he keeping careful watch on her and the street ahead…

"Been with Buffy and co, long, Red?..." he asked, politely…Peering down an alleyway… "I mean have you and she been friends long, that is?..."

"A while now…Since she started at Sunnydale High after she moved here…"

"Ah…" he nodded… "And thick as thieves since…That's nice…You know, Cicely had no close girlfriends, I believe…It's nice to hear she has someone this time…"

"She was a jerk to leave me alone like this…" Willow frowned, wanly…

"Couldn't help herself, Red…No soul means a little less on the caring/compassionate, you know?...It's a tribute to her dedication that she's even inclined to risk it on the Slaying at all…" he noted…Refraining politely from stating the obvious… "Lets take a gander in here…" he jerked a thumb at the large bank tower before them… "Just to be sure…It's an old demon's trick to block the vibes…Buildings like this then to soak them up a bit…And provide good cover…"

"Yes, William…" she nodded…

They entered the foyer…The locked revolving door already smashed open by looting humans earlier…Now though, no trace but some smashed pots, papers strewn, and doors thrown open…

"Anything?..." he asked her… She shrugged… "No…Not here…"

Hmmn…He glanced round…

Would've thought she'd be keeping in close…Trailing me…

Still could be of course, just keepin' her distance…Dru may feel she's a gift but no way to be sure how good Red's senses are with the effects of thrall and soul loss combined…

"Lets hole up here, just a mo…See if she might be following us…"

"Yes, William…" yawn…

"You ought to sit a spell, Red…Here…Have a seat…" he pulled a chair over from a security desk, long abandoned…

"Thank you…" she took seat…

"Hungry?...I can try and find a vending machine or something…"

"No…" yawn…

"Sorry to keep you up so late…" he apologized… "But it is a major crisis…"

"I understand…" she eyed him… "Buffy's wants to dust you bad…"

"Maybe…But that's not the crisis, love…So, tell me…" he took a seat, perching on an edge of the security desk… "I know it's takin' unfair advantage, but as you said…I may be dust soon, if I'm lucky…Or a monster again…" he paused… "Buffy ever show any…Interest in me?...I mean during our little recent encounters…"

"She thought you were a real psycho…" Willow nodded…

"I can imagine…" he sighed… "But…Never any…Interest?...Any suggestion she might have been…I don't know, thinkin' about me…Besides strategy and tactics, that is…"

"Sorry, I didn't ask if she was hot for you…" Willow looked a bit downcast… "I figured she and Angel…She was pretty frantic about him this year…Though it was strange…"

"Angel…Right…" he frowned…Hmmn?...

"What?...How, 'strange'?..."

"She was pretty upset about Angel…Till tonight…But…She didn't ask…I thought that was strange…"

"Ask what?..."

"Giles…Or me…How to get him outta Hell or go there…I mean…" Willow looked at him… "I woulda gone, for Xander…"

"The unconscious boy toy in the car?..." he eyed her…

"He's mine…" Willow nodded…Firm stare…

"I hope he appreciates it…" smile…

"No, he doesn't …" renewed downcast look… "He doesn't know I exist…Outside of being a bestest bud…All he thinks about now is…" she eyed him… "Well, not now, I guess…In fact he's kinda given up on her since she turned him down and Angel showed…But he doesn't think about me…"

"Ah, Red…" he smiled sadly… "I know the feelin'…And I am sorry…But, hang in there…If he's really the one you want…Though don't take that as either order or subconscious implant, please…Your call, really…"

"I dunno if I wanna wait a century…" she shook her head slowly…

"Wise beyond your years…" he grinned… "Still…" he reflected… "I'll tell you, Willow…If I had the chance to actually decide my fate over again…"

"I'd take another route home on March 13, 1880…" grin… "But everything else…The same…"

So long as the mass murder gets by-passed…he noted…

"William?..." Willow looked at him…

"Yeah, girl?...You need another drink?..."

"Was I supposed to tell you if Buffy came in while you were talkin'…?"

"Hello, husband…" Buffy, brittle and cold tone…Eyeing them both from a balcony on the second floor overlooking the foyer… "Where'd the adulteress get to?...Or has this friend of mine from the modern era stolen you from me now?..."

"Cicely…" he sighed, rising and looking up to her… "Willow is in thrall, just helpin' me find…"

"Thrall…How romantic…" Buffy sneered, fussing with the shawl round her gown…

Damn fluffy thing… "…And just helping you find true and eternal bliss?..."

"Girl…You may be sorry for those words tomorrow…Assuming you remember them…"

"I'll have them engraved on your tombstone, dearest…" Buffy glared… "You faithless…!"

"No one's betrayed you, Cics…" he frowned up at her… "God knows, I understand that you were deceived in all that happened back then but you've no right to start accusing me…"

"I don't need any 'right'!..." Buffy yelled, face darkening… "I'm the Slayer!...And no two-timing friend is playing me for a fool with my husband!...Thrall or no thrall!…" she stamped a foot…

"Well…Fine…Come on down then and get me…" he called up… "Just let me get Red here along to safety before we duke it out, eh?…Willow?..."

"Willow!...You stay right there!..." Buffy cried… "One step toward that door and I won't need to fret over Drusilla's absence…!"

"That's totally uncalled for, Buffy…" William frowned… "The girl's done nothing to merit that kind of disparagement…And as for poor Dru…"

" 'Poor Dru'!..." choking sound…Buffy vanished…

"Willow!...Go!..." he pointed to a hallway… "Try to get to the street and find Dru or one of the other team leaders as soon as you…"

"Too late…!" Buffy was in the hallway facing them…Bitter smile…

"Sorry to bring your latest romantic entanglement to an abrupt end…" she gave a cold smile…Waving stake…

"Speakin' of which, love…How is Angel?..." he replied…

"In Hell…Give him my best!..." she raged, hurling stake…Which he dodged, like a bullfighter…

Well, what do you know?...He thought, a bit happily…She really doesn't want to kill me…That was a deliberate miss…

"How dare you mention Angelus to me!..." she cried, racing past to retrieve the stake buried deep in the wall behind him, he turning to face her…Waving to the staring Willow to get moving, girl…Willow vaguely rising from her seat…

"How dare…I?..." he frowned… "As I recall from my counterpart, your sleeping with him triggered the whole series of events we just got through…"

"That was modern girl sans memory…She doesn't count…" Buffy was pulling at the stake in the wall, fuming… "Damned stupid thing!...My ole stake 'Dickens' would never…Arggh…"

"And Spike does?..." he called, a tad annoyed…

"This isn't my old body!...Damn!...OW!"

He hurried over… "Are you all right?..."

"I broke my nail…Right down to the…OW!...Oh, it's bleeding now…"

"Stop fussing with that stupid stake and let me see…" he reached for her hand…She whirling on him…

But…Pausing…Extended the injured hand…He took it…

"It's not too bad…Lets find some water…Come on…"

"This has been a bad day…" she shook her head… "I just want the pain to stop…" her face eyed his…Eyes pleading, a little girl on the edge of tears…

"I'll do my best, love…" he patted her arm…

"Willow stays…" she growled…

"Fine…Red?...Just stay at the table?...We'll be right back…"

"I want my stake…" Buffy looked at the wall… "Don't let anyone take Mr. Pointy…"

"No, no…No one else is here…And I doubt there's many in Sunnydale who could pull that out…It's fine…Come on and lets see to this…" he pulled her along…

"Where's your jacket?..." she looked him over… "I like the jacket…" Narrow look… "I suppose Drusilla…"

"No, she doesn't…I leant it to…A fellow who needed one…I'll find another later…"

"They have nice ones where I got this…" she indicated the green gown…

"That's lovely…I did mean to say so before…" he led her to a ladies room…

"I know…" she smiled, a bit pertly… "But thanks…"

"Come on…"

"William?...It's a women's room…" she frowned…Looking round…

"No one's about but us…The whole town's either busy looting the malls or home in bed sleeping the whole thing off…Come, I want to wash that finger…It's a bad cut…"

"You have no sense of propriety…Never did…" she shook her head…

"I really liked that…" she grinned as they entered…

"Now, then…Better?..." he daubed at the injured finger with some tissue paper…

"Much…Thank you…" she nodded… "You belong to me, you know…" stern look…

"I've no objection…" smile, cocked head…

"Really?..." a eager tone…

"I'm here, aren't I?..."

"You didn't come to Sunnydale looking for me…"

"I wasn't here until tonight…" firm stare… "But something must have drawn Spike…"

"Really?..." bright smile…

"I'd say so…"

"Probably Drusilla…You were lookin' to cure her, right?…" frown…

"He was…Not me…"

She eyed him… "Honestly?..."

"Cics…Soul or no soul, you know when I'm tellin' the truth…" he eyed her…

"So you are…Perhaps…" she looked away…

"Do you remember?...Everything, now?..." he asked, staring at her…

"I think so…" she nodded… "I was Cicely…I won you…I married you…I lost you and…"

She hesitated…Ummn… "…And died…But you know me, William, a little thing like murder doesn't keep me down…" arch look…

"I guess not…" he smiled…"Won me, eh?..." cocked head…

"Certainly…And you didn't make it easy, you know…" she sighed…

She frowned again as they stepped back into the foyer…Willow waiting patiently at table…

"Now…Cics…?" he eyed her… "You know Willow isn't here voluntarily and that I needed her help to find you…"

"Perhaps…" she shrugged…Swaying suddenly…

"Cics…?"

"I'm tired…" she sighed… "It's been a long night…"

"Might do well to take forty winks, eh?..."

"No…" she shook her head, narrow look at him…

"You'll be gone…"

"I'll wake you in a couple of hours…There'll be plenty of time…"

"No…" she refused…Pulling hand loose… "You just want to be back with your whore…"

"Cics…"

"Besides…" slight relent… "If this soul nonsense is true, we have to go find Giles…Have him take care of you…"

"I'm sure he'd like to…" wry grin…

Frowning stare…Wrinkling her brow…

"Yes…Well…If he gives you any trouble, I'll deal…"

"Nice of you, thanks…But we can't leave town just yet…Too many lives at stake, if you'll forgive the pun…"

"Lives, schmives…Our bank account there is quite to the plus…Including yours, William, after the other day…" she eyed him… "I was very proud of you, you know…Once I remembered who you were…An admirable Slayer's mate, I thought…"

"Thanks…But you will care about the others later…I promise you…"

"That dratted soul thing again?…" she eyed him… "I suppose so…."Sigh… "Couldn't we have one quiet evening together?…We've certainly earnt it…You may recall we didn't even have a proper wedding night…Let alone a decent honeymoon…" she frowned… "But you now must have your chance to play the hero, I know…Fine…" shrug…Then brightening… "But at least we could do our duty from here or together for the evening…Right?...If we must fret about all these little lives…"

"And speakin' of lives…What about your mother?...Joyce?..." he asked…

"She was sleeping when I…This rather rebellious young thing…" she indicated herself… "Left for Patrol…Before things became odd…I'm sure the woman's fine…"

"Buffy…She is your mother…And a good egg, I should say…Guess that makes her my…Hmmn…"

"Only technically as to the mother business…" Buffy shrugged…

"But didn't yours…I mean Cicely's…Die in childbirth?…"

He would have to mention 'childbirth'…she frowned…

"You mean you think she might be…?" she paused… "My mother?...The original…?"

"Anything's possible, Cics…"

Hmmn…Would be a nice stroll…And it would help to remove him from the association of a certain re-souled whore for a bit…And my room's there, just waiting for a long overdue sexual encounter…Plus a cellar to lock him in, since this nonsense about putting another silly "save the world" thing ahead of our happiness is quite over, whatever he may think…

As is any further association with needful young women, however menaced by evil…And however good a friend…She narrowly glanced at Willow…

"Well…Perhaps we should go and check on the poor woman…Dear Mom…" Buffy noted…Offering arm…

"Delighted…" he took the proffered arm… "Just let me check in…With our guy, Willie…" he put up a hand to her frown… "At base camp…"

"Hmmn…" she eyed him as he closed phone, having passed the good news along… "You do have this well-organized…I'm impressed…This 'Willie' is a male whatever he is, right?..."

"Quite male…Thanks…" he grinned… "Coming from the Slayer and all…Hey, Red?...We're pulling out…" he called to Willow…

"She doesn't need to come, surely…" Buffy eyed her…

"We can't leave her here…Something or someone might drop in…She'd be helpless…Buffy, you'd regret it later…"

"Fine…Just have her keep off…" she said, annoyed… "I want a little quality time…That's hardly a lot to ask considering what we've done for Humanity…"

"Thank you…" he smiled… "Cics…?"

"Hmmn?..." she was eyeing Willow…Who, now standing by chair, still waiting patiently…

No, no real threat there…

"It is nice…Even for a little while…And even if you're not all here…To be back with you…"

"Naturally…" she shrugged… "Now, come along…" she pulled him…

"What?..." he eyed her look as they left by the front revolving door, Willow trailing docilely…

"You haven't mentioned how you liked the blonde yet…" Buffy noted…

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

"Sunset…"

Part VII…

Buffy put up a hand as they neared a collection of smashed, burning cars at an intersection about eight blocks from her home and William moved to see…Leave it to me…She hurried over…

"No one alive, just a body…" she called…Frowning as he came over after cautioning Willow to stay put on the street corner…

"I said to leave it to me…" she said, annoyed tone… "I might be soulless, if all that's not nonsense…But I'm still the Slayer and capable of handling a minor reconnaissance…Please go back and wait for me…There might be something dangerous here…"

He eyed her stern look…Glancing uncertainly over to the cars…

"What?...You think soulless me would let the innocent roast?..." she coldly stared… "I still have a heroine's reputation to maintain, you know…"

"Sorry…" he sighed… "And I'm grateful you still want to protect me…It's just…"

"I love you more than my own life…" she said, simply… "That doesn't change, even without soul…And I begin to suspect, even without memory…But if you're wondering would I abandon people to protect you?…Yes…Absolutely…And don't be too sure that's a quality owing to the current absence of soul…But there's no threat to you so long as you don't start trying to prove this soul business the hard way…William?...Surely you can sense no human's alive over there…So don't worry and lets go back…I've no intention of throwing my life or yours away to rescue charred bones…"

Please…? Her face not relenting but he sensed the plea under the unflinching look…

"Thanks…" he nodded…They went back to Willow…

"We have to stop this before more die, Buffy…" he looked at her…

"Particularly you…" she said, resuming her pace… "Come on, then…" He signaled to Willow to follow them and moved to join Buffy… "So D'Hoffryn is involved in this?...Interfering in our lives again?..." she frowned…

"Yeah…" Will nodded… "Though, and I'm sure utterly unintentionally, he seems to have actually done us a favor this one out…Though…" he managed to hold the thought on Dru's essential help…

Not the time to bring her up just now, soulless Buffy/Cics seeming in a fairly good if possessive mood…

"He's obviously plotting to bring me down, somehow…" Buffy reflected… "It must have been his game in 1880 as well…I played into his hands…And Simon…"

"Simon?..."

"You remember Dr. Farris, my old friend…White hair, slightly arrogant manner…He was my Watcher…"

"Farris?...The old antiques dealer?..."

"He set up the first contact with D'Hoffryn's girl…The one who took my form that night…Halfreck…" Buffy…Suddenly grim…Dark look…

"Was she the one?...Here…?" she asked…

"If she was, she changed her look as well as name, drastically…Anya...Human name…Anya Jenkins, to be precise…"

"Pretty?..." clipped tone…

"It wasn't that sort of encounter, Buffy…"

"Then if I rend her limb from limb on encounter, it won't bother you…?"

"I'd help…If it will change things…"

"No…" she paused suddenly…Mood changing immediately… "If she were destroyed…You may revert immediately…No, if we can capture it, we bargain with her boss…Offer…I don't know…" hand wave… "The lives here for your soul's permanent installation?...And mine's return, I suppose…"

"You wouldn't want that, Buffy…"

"I'm sure I'd have a few sleepless nights…They'd pass…In your arms…" she said, quickly at the end…Wan smile… "And it's my decision…You've nothing to regret…Soulless me can take the blame…"

"No, love…But no need to be quite so ruthless yet…" he noted to her angry look… "We've got your Council coming, I hope…Perhaps they can help persuade our friend to help us…"

"The Council?..." Buffy frowned…Halting, hand on hip…Christ Jesus!...

Uh-oh…Ultra-glare level, he noted…

"William, are you a fool?" she fumed… "They won't help us!...They murdered us!...All they'll do is kill you and try to make me forget everything, if they can…Or replace me asap…How could you have been so foolish?...Oh…Shit!..." she stamped a foot…

"Damn…This foul-mouthed era…" she fumed again… "My apologies, William…" briefly sheepish look…

He waved a hand…"No offence taken…Cics, I needed some help…Lives, remember?...Including yours…I knew Mr. Giles was a good egg, as Watchers go…And cares about you…"

"Giles…" shake of head, eye roll… "Eh, he's a dedicated Watcher…Probably knew all about you…Well, that settles it…We leave…Now…" she insisted… "We'll find someone who can help us…In Los Angeles or somewhere…But we go…Now…"

"We can't leave…And even if I were willing…We've less than eighteen hours before I revert, much of which I'll have to spend indoors or wrapped like the invisible man…The Council or D'Hoffryn's bird are our best hopes, Cics…"

She frowned but considered…

"I suppose if we could capture Giles…Hold him…Oh, but they'd never care about a single Watcher's life…"

"I'm flattered…" he smiled… "Really…" he eyed her stern look…

No time for nonsense, Walthrop…

"It's nice to know it wasn't all a dream…I thought a long time, perhaps it was…"

"What?...This?...Tonight?..." she frowned…

Romantic sensibility…All very well and I chose him for it but just right now…Well, thank God the Slayer's now in charge here to inject a little iron…

"No…The whole shebang…Our being married, you coming to care for me…After that Halfreck, and finding myself a bit dead and something of a monster…I figured…"

"Ridiculous…" she snorted…Then glared "Are you saying you doubted my love for you?..."

"Actually no…But I did wonder if I was in love with a fantasy…I mean, given the circumstances…Being dead and condemned after being rejected by your clone…"

"No fantasy, you silly twit…" annoyed tone… "Admittedly it was a bit difficult for you to have faith, I appreciate that…I'm sure it was a terrible experience and all…" pat on arm…

"But I've got everything in hand now…And no more nonsensical worries on my part about whether you can survive or no…You've proven yourself admirably…We'll set this right, William…I promise…"

"Thanks…" he smiled… "But I've never lost faith, you should know that…"

"Of course you didn't…You're here, aren't you?…" she shrugged… "That confirms that…Now, as to our next move…Lets see to my mother and then perhaps I can make for Giles' and see what he might have at home…You can stay with her in the house…"

Cut to shot of William securely chained in the cellar…The wandering husband problem temporarily settled…

"I think I might be a better one to do that end at Giles'…I do have a bit more intimate knowledge of the occult…"

"William…" frown… "This Yank girl may be a bit of an airhead as they say now but I was no fool and a good researcher…I'll bring anything useful back…Besides, you'll want to be there to guard my mother and poor Willow here…"

Of some use after all…Bringing my nerdy best friend to safety…She noted to herself…

"I'd prefer to stick with you…You're not fully aware of the effect the soul lack is having, Cics…I don't want you to do anything you may regret later…"

"I wouldn't kill Giles…If that's what you're thinking…He's much too valuable as a hostage…"

"I'm speaking generally…But good point, glad you brought it up…There might be other Watchers with him who aren't so valuable…"

"Oh, botheration…William, I love your kind heart and all that but…" his phone rang…

"Oh, hi…" he told the phone…

Her face turned suspicious and dark, listening to his guarded tone…

I think I can guess who this is…

"Yes, I'm with Buffy…She's…"

"I'll talk to her…" Buffy snatched the phone…

"Cicely…" he frowned…

"Hello, whore…Yes, he's with me…For good…And you are…What?...Oh, yes, of course he's fine…What are you suggesting you murderous?..." red-faced rage…

"Cicely, give me…"

She tossed him back… "Sorry…Busy…" she eyed him on the ground…She resumed…

"You heap of…!..What?...Oh…Well…Thank you…Yes, I'm very pleased as well…Well, you should be ashamed, you vicious…Hmmn?…Oh, yes, we were discussing it…Yes, he told me…Eighteen hours, more or less…Indeed, not a moment to be lost…"

On his feet again, he stared at her…She putting up a hand…Just a mo…Talkin' here…

"But fortunately…And I suppose I must give you credit for that, Dru…Cicely is here to deal…What?...No, I haven't asked him…But you can be sure he's pleased as well…" she pulled the phone away, covering…

"Yes?..." she asked…

"Sure…" he nodded…

"Thought so…" she returned to the phone… "Yes, he's overwhelmed with joy…Now, as to your charges?...Really?...That's good...Well done…But, what I would like, Dru, is for you to have a few choice specimens…Attractive or plump…Or both…Brought over to my house?...They may be useful in bargaining with any otherworlders for a more permanent cure for Will…"

"Buffy…" he stared…She gave him a frown…No time for such sentimental nonsense, boy…

"What?..." cold tone entering… "Hardly the person to be taking such a moral tone, Miss Drusilla…" grimly… "No, I will not put him on the phone…Just bring…What do you mean you'll do no such thing, you foul little murderess?..."

"Give me the phone, Cicely…" he grabbed for it, she shoving him back…

"I said I'm busy, William…Now, you listen, you adulterous, scheming whore of a…Hmmn?...Hmmn…Well…Perhaps…I suppose the offer could be made without the victims present…Yes…" sour look at William who glared at her…

Gonna be very annoyed with you, Cics, in a min…

"…I suppose soul boy here would prefer that approach…" she pulled away again…

"Very well…We'll just offer the victims…And lure any thing we find to the city center…Satisfied?..."

He frowned…Girl…He shook his head but shrugged and nodded…

"Yes, it works for our romantic hero here as well…Yes, I suppose my dear little soul would prefer it too…" shrug… "Oh say, what about the Watchers?...You do have scouts out and about, I trust?...Good…All right, we're heading to my house…William's concerned about his mother-in-law…Call immediately if you or your people encounter anyone…All right, then…" she closed phone…

"Girl has a degree of sense when not utterly demonically insane…" she noted…Heading off…

"Well?...Come along, William…We have a lot to do…" she turned back to him… "And bring Willow…I suppose she'll be useful…"


	3. Chapter 3

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

"Sunset…"

Part VIII…

"Ah…Here we are…" Buffy hurried up the path to her front door…Pausing to look back where William was cautiously looking about… "You bring Willow…"

"Come on, then…" she waved… "We've much to do before dawn, William…"

"Right…" he came up, hesitating…Willow blankly following…

"What?..." she looked at him…

"I don't know…I…" he glanced sheepishly at the door…

"I didn't have time to raise a barrier, not that blonde simpleton here…" she frowned, looking downward… "…would have any idea how to defend herself or hers that way, in spite of years of exposure to occult lore…It's perfectly all right…"

"It's not that…" he paused… "Just…I…"

"Modern Mother seemed to like you very much…If I remember…Are you afraid you'll go all blood-lust?...I can restrain you easily, not a difficulty…"

"No, I've fed…We all did, as a precaution on some cows' blood…But…Cics…It is very late…I mean to be escorting a young woman home…"

"That's your worry?...William, the woman if awake is almost certainly soulless…And judging by her daughter's behavior has little sense of social propriety…" with a chuckle, she entered…

"Joyce…Mrs. Summers…Always seemed a very dutiful mother to me…" he insisted, following…

"Ah, home sweet hovel…" Buffy shook her head at the surroundings in the Summers' living room…

At a sudden sound, both she and Will were instantly alert…Upstairs, he mouthed…Indicating the stairway bannister, he whispered to the blank-eyed Willow to take a seat on the couch and wait, quietly…

They moved carefully across the living room, Buffy with glare at Will's attempt to move ahead, taking the lead…Stealthily up the stairs…A light on just down the hall…

"Her room…" Buffy hissed… "She must be…"

"Buffy?..." Joyce's voice…Followed shortly by Joyce's appearance in the hall, in robe…Curlers in hairnet…

"Mother…" Buffy, pleasant tone… "Sorry if we disturbed you…"

"Him again?..." Joyce eyed William… Who gave a polite smile and nod…

"Yes, Mrs. Summers…I hope we didn't frighten you…Sorry to be so late…We were out and had some car trouble…Not her fault, I hope you understand…"

Buffy eyeing him…Shaking head…

My Victorian…

"I'm just getting a few things organized…" Joyce shrugged… "I thought you were sleeping, Buffy…"

"I…Ummn…" Buffy winced a bit now, in her turn… "Will and I had a few things to discuss…"

"I assure you, Mrs. Summers…" Will began…

"Sneaked out again, eh?...With him?..." Joyce shook her head… "Well, I hope you used a condom…Anyway, by tomorrow, you're your father's problem…I'm sending you to him…"

"Mother?..." shocked look at the "condom"…Turning to puzzlement… "…to Father?..."

"I've got a life to lead, Buffy…And you're the one always whining how you want to spend more time with Daddy…Now, you can…I'll put you on the first train to LA…"

"But isn't Father…Dad…" Buffy corrected hastily, concentrating…Yes… "In Spain?..."

"He's still got an apartment in LA…You can stay there till he sends you a plane ticket…The police or the landlord'll let you in…Just show them your id…I'm putting the house up for sale tomorrow…Not that I expect to clear much on it…But I'll need every penny for getting a start in New York…"

"New York?..."

"Where else?..." frown… "Sweetie, I'm not gonna waste my talent here in nowheresville for the rest of my life…I've still got contacts there…A guy who'd give me a job like that in his gallery…He was pretty hot for me when I was in grad school and he's still big, though getting up there…I'm sure the old fellow'd still find me…Appealing, if I get myself back in some decent clothes and make-up…" she eyed the staring Buffy…

"You know…" she gave a shrewd appraising glance… "If you wanted to come along, you'd probably clinch the deal for ole Mommy once he got a look at you…He was into threesomes, the guys used to say…"

"Mrs. Summers?..." Will, blinking…

"…Free trip to NYC?...And your dad could send the ticket there when I'm set with the old fart…" Joyce noted…

"Appealing, but…" Buffy shrugged… "Afraid I've made my own plans…William here and I are engaged…"

What?...William, Joyce…Staring…

"Yes, we'll be married as soon as possible…So there's no need for the train ticket, thanks…"

Joyce glanced from smilingly bland Buffy to clueless, staring William…

Engaged?...

"Well, whatever…" she shrugged… "Don't make it too quick, I just hit your dad up for a higher child-support payment for the month…Tole him you had some gyn bills…" she yawned…Thumbing through some print-out pages…

"What?..." Buffy hissed to the still reeling William… "We're already married, aren't we?..." she whispered as Joyce scanned the pages briefly…

"I'll be closing out all the accounts tomorrow…So don't try to charge anything to them…As far as college goes, if your dad can keep a villa and babe in Spain, he can pay your way or you can do a state school or work, right?..."

"Certainly, Mother…Mom…" Buffy nodded… Joyce beaming at her…

"There's my girl…If your dad pays for the wedding, make it a big one and invite me…Say, you can hire me as a creative consultant, I'd love to stick one more bill to him…Anyway, I'll send you my new address in NYC, we can get together when I have time and do the city…On your dad's credit card, of course…Well, I'm off to bed…Big day tomorrow…"

"Sounds wonderful, Mom…We'll be leaving soon ourselves…Uh, have a good trip…" Buffy smiled…

"What, no kiss good-night?..." Joyce eyed her…

"Sorry…" Buffy came over…Pecking cheek…

"And my new son-in-law?...Not too bad, girl…" Joyce grinned at William…Reaching a hand out…

"C'mere and give Mum a big one…" she pulled at him…

Go on…Buffy urged him with glance…He stumbling a bit…

Joyce grabbing him and fixing lips solidly, with resounding smack…

"Definitely not bad…" she grinned, releasing him as Buffy glared… "Don't suppose you'd like to let your new mum-in-law give you a little more experienced taste of what's in store from her girl?...No?...Well, another time…Oh, look at my possessive little Buffy, all in a huff…" grin… "All yours, baby…"

"G'night, honey…" she waved to the red-faced, glaring Buffy… "Take anything and I'll have the police on you both so fast your heads'll spin…"

"Come on, William…" Buffy pulled him along as Joyce closed her bedroom door…

"American mothers…" she growled, glancing back at the closed door… "No wonder this little strumpet's already deflowered…"

"Just Ange…That miserable beast…" she eyed Will's look… "He forced himself on me, no doubt…"

"…And no one else…I swear…" she hastily concluded…

"It's fine Cics…None of my business what Buffy did or does…"

She rounded on him, he stumbling into her…"The hell it is!...William!..."

"What?..."

"You're my husband!…How can you say that?...And after I kept myself for you back in our time!…"

"We did manage a pre-nuptual shag if I…Hey!..." he recoiled at her hard slap…Winging into the opposite wall…

"You deserved that!..." she raged… "How dare you take it so lightly?…I only…" she reddened… "Gave of myself…Because I trusted you completely…We were already married, in spirit…"

"Sorry…"

"It's your duty as my husband to protect this…American idiot…" she frowned at herself, looking down… "From the consequences of her miserably poor upbringing…Especially if we fail to secure my place here permanently… I count on you to keep her in some sort of decent behavior…After all I have a stake in this body…"

"Cics?..."

"And don't think relosing your soul gets you off the hook, as it were…" she frowned… "You can still influence Spike to jealousy or protectiveness, hovering about, I'm sure…It might be difficult, true, but I expect much from my husband…" she paused…Nervous tone…

"Of course, there'll be no need as we won't fail…You'll remain souled and I will be with you…Soul or no soul…" she eyed him… "But…"

"I'll do my best, Cics…" he nodded…Pressing her hand gently…

"All I ask…" she nodded back…Long stare…

"One moment, Will…" Buffy crept down the hall, pushed at Joyce's bedroom door which opened…

Ah…

Dear Mommie contentedly snoozing away…She eyed the sleeping Joyce…

Geesh, some mother she is…Her daughter stripped of soul and wandering the town with a "fiancee" she barely knows and she's out like a light?...

Still…Probably for the best…She closed the door…

"Will?..." she hissed back to him… "My mother's asleep now…She should be fine for the rest of the night…"

"Good…" he returned…

"Lets go down and we'll see what our next move should be…" she said, lightly…

Hmmn…Yes…Tell him Giles stored some materials of potential value to us in the cellar?...Yes, plausible and worth while…Sure to work…

"So Mother's settled for now…" she patted him on the shoulder on reaching the ground floor… "Now, if Willow is all right for a moment, lets go down to the basement and rummage through Giles' things stored here…"

He was getting overcrowded at the library, she explained… Had to dump a few rather powerful items here… "I'm sure we'll find something useful…"

"Right…" Will nodded…

Lets see…Something to secure him with that he won't break free from for a few hours…At least a few minutes…

And then I resolve this little matter anyway necessary…Before that band of self-righteous murderers called the Watchers' Council makes its entrance… Fortunately on top of two sets of Slayer combat skills I'm now fully-equipped with a decent intellect and what I imbibed of my original father's ruthless negotiating skills…

No one more able to squeeze blood from a Parliamentary or foreign rival stone than Sir Richard Addams…

I mean what's the population of Sunnydale, sixty, seventy thousand?...Hardly to be stacked against my record of billions saved…Not to mention my husband's late effort…That many must die each year in traffic incidents in this benighted land…

She pasted a warm smile to William's "well?" look and indicated the basement door… "Right after you, dear…"


	4. Chapter 4

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

"Sunset…"

Part IX…

Cellar of the Summers' home…

"How dare you, sir?..." Buffy fumed, struggling against the ropes William had tied round her… "Is this the way you treat your wife?...I must give serious consideration to a formal divorce…"

"You were going to try and tie me up down here, Cics…" he noted, matter of factly… "I may have a soul again but I can sense when a soulless companion is up to something…"

"That was for strictly altruistic reasons…For your own good…!" she squirmed in the ropes…

"Actually…" he smiled… "I believe you…I know you really did just want to take this matter in hand yourself…What were you planning?...Some deal with D"Hoffryn or…?"

"Certainly not…" she lied… "Just secure your safety…And continue the work of rounding up our poor citizens here…Waiting for Giles and the Council…I see it was a mistake, now…You can clearly defend yourself well…" smile… "Brave, Will…I always knew you had it in you… Now, just let me go so I can help here…"

"Cicely…You are lying…"

"How dare you?..." she glared… "And it was utterly base of you to take advantage of this young woman's body's sexual tension to …Well, take advantage of me…"

"I only kissed you…" he noted… "Then used a trick I learned in China for paralyzing opponents…And by the way, you should be more careful when a vampire makes a move like that…I thought Buffy, let alone you, had more instinctive sense…At least since Angelus returned here…"

"You took shameless advantage of my love for you!..." she howled…

"You're going to wake mother…" he noted…

"Oh, bother…Hmmn…Oh, William…" she beamed suddenly… "Mother?...That's so sweet of you…I know she'll appreciate it when she recovers her soul and gets to know you…The soul, I mean…Wouldn't it be nice if she really is my own mother, likewise reincarnated…I never knew her, you know…"

"Would be like God to reincarnate your poor mother in a situation where she could become a fiend's victim at any time…" he sighed…

"Now…" she gave a reproving glance… "Don't be like that…Things are working out for us at last…And we'll protect her once this little affair is happily settled…"

"Well, however it's settled…I'll do my best for her…And you, dear…" he nodded…

"And to that purpose, let me go…" she frowned at him… "Come now, Willaim, you need me…"

"I can't trust you in your current, Cics…And in fact to be honest I'd no intention of letting you leave here 'to help' in any case..."

"You let me go, husband…Or so help me…" she glared…Trying to shake free… "These won't hold me for long, regardless…"

"No, very true…" he nodded… "Which is why I'll have to put you out again and lock you up somewhere more secure…"

"No!...she squirmed… "William, damn you!...I'm trying to save you!...Who cares what must be done to accomplish that?...I've earned it a million times over in both my existences!...Please…Don't, my love!...I take it back about the divorce, I never intended…Let me…" she groaned as he carefully pinched her neck at a point and she collapsed…

"Sorry, love…Truly…" he sighed… "Thank God at least I didn't have to put you in thrall…I would not have wanted to give Spike that edge on you…" he lifted her unconscious body and carried her quickly upstairs…

"Willow!..." he hissed… "Come here, girl…"

"Master?..."

"Hmmn…?" Will looked at Willow, following him…He shifted the now sleeping, rope-tied Buffy in his arms…

"What's up, Red?...Trouble…?"

"No, Master…I only…I could carry her, Master…" Willow suggested, a bit eagerly…

Hmmn…What's this about?...

"No, she's a bit heavy for you…And more of a handful if she awakes…And what's with the servile crap, girl?...I didn't request it…"

"Just being a good enthralled servant, William…" Willow noted… "Sorry if you don't like it…"

"There's no call for it, sweetheart…Just do what I ask and that's quite enough…Are you all right?..."

"I'm fine...But Buffy's a danger to you…We shouldn't keep her…"

"I've that well in hand, Red…We're taking her to the one place in town she'll have a little difficulty breaking out of…"

"Oh…" Willow, disappointed tone… "I could probably secure her for you…If you want to deal with more important matters…"

"Red?..." he paussed…Eyeing her…She regarding him with blandly blank, pleasant expression…

"What is up here?...Truthfully, girl?..."

"I'm horny and I'd like to grab Buffy's spot with you…" she noted, speaking a bit flatly… "The thrall and the stuff about this ancient romance has got my motor running…Oh, William, can't I just kill her and be your new girl…We could find a way to summon Cicely in here if you'd like…" she indicated herself… "Much easier to restrain than in Buffy…"

"Willow…Flattered as I am…You don't know what you're soullessly sayin'… Now I order you, girl, to put such thoughts out of your redhead and drop the servile bit…Just help me out as your friend and the friend who's got you in thrall…And keep any ideas about harming Buffy out of your noggin…Ok?..."

"Yeah…" sigh…

"Now keep a sixth sense out for anything potentially troublesome and we'll continue to be friends…Until I revert, at least…"

"Right…Mas…William…"

"There's a lamb…And Red, I do appreciate it…It's nice to be fancied by such a lovely girl…But I am very happily married, despite our unfortunate bad luck over the years…"

"Ok…" sigh…

"It will come Red…If not that fellow back in the car…What was his name?..."

"Xander…Alexander…Harris…"

"He reminded me a bit of an old friend of mine…Anyway…If it's not him, someone…You're too good to miss, Red…Just be patient and as sweet as you already are, when fully equipped with soul…"

"if I had power…Like Buffy…" she eyed Buffy in his arms… "You'd like me then, wouldn't you?..."

"Willow…I asked you to stop thinking along these lines…Power's not the answer and I'd no idea Cicely had power of any sort when I first hooked up with her…"

"Right, sorry…"

"I loved her because she saw something worth loving in me…That's how it works, Red…"

"Oh…I think you're very sexy, William…"

"Deeper than that, sweetheart…Again, flattered, but I really hafta insist you focus on the task at hand…"

"Ok…Sorry…"

"Thanks…" he looked up the street…Ah…Thought I remembered it from when Spike broke in that first week…He increased speed, sensing Buffy was stirring a bit…

Don't wanna keep doing that neck pinch…Might do some permanent damage…

"The Bank of Sunnydale…?" Willow stared…

"The very thing…" he nodded, smiling… "For such valuable cargo…"

Large transport helicopter, 4000 feet above the town line of Sunnydale…

"Well?..." Giles in flight suit with parachute, eyed the elderly man next to him…The old man in deep mediation…Ten other men and women, all in the same flight suit, with chutes, some bearing guns, others more antique weapons such as crossbows, two standing by large crates…

"I sense the field begins just ahead…" the old man looked at him… "Very powerful but our orb should protect us…"

"Deploy the orb, Wesley…!" Giles turned to one of the two standing by the crates, a tall, bespectacled young man in flight suit…One Wesley Wyndham-Price, candidate Watcher…Wesley nodding and opening the crate near him…Pulling out a large, electric-blue glowing orb…Touching it with a large metal ring…

"All of you!..." he shouted to the others… "Touch your rings and put them on...!"

Each team member stepped forward…Touching ring…Giles, last, after the elderly mystic…Wesley touched another and carefully made his way forward to the pilot's area…Handing the ring to the pilot, a young woman of mid-twenties years, who nodded thanks and carefully put it on her right wrist…

"Everyone secure?..." Giles called… "Whatever you do once we enter the spell zone, don't remove the ring…!"

Wesley had returned…Eyeing Giles… "So William the Bloody wasn't lying about the spell…!" he noted…

"For all we know it's of his making and simply bait to draw us in after disabling Buffy…!" Giles replied… "The original mission plan remains in force…We make a surveillance, determine if Buffy is alive and can be retrieved…Destroy any vampires, particularly William the Bloody and Drusilla, we encounter…!"

"Sir?...What about civilians?..." a young team member, a short female, brunette…Haley, he recognized…Wesley and the other younger members looking at him as well…

"Their protection goes without saying…!" Giles, quickly… "Though our top priority is to break this spell…That is the best and really, only, way to rescue them…!"

"Sir?...If William was telling the truth!…And has recovered a soul…If all the vampires in the spell zone now have souls, however temporarily…!" Wesley began…

"That's not our concern, Mr. Wyndham-Price!…They are better off destroyed…!"

"But if they could assist us?...At least until they revert?..."

"Mr. Wyndham-Price!…All of you!…" Giles eyed the group, raising his voice as loudly as he could… "Do not let your natural sympathies for these creatures and their fates blind you to the larger issue at hand!…We must prevent D'Hoffryn's scheme from succeeding…He must not acquire Buffy Summers for his tool…!"

"I still don't fully understand why D'Hoffryn should hope to acquire Ms. Summers?..." Wesley, holding onto crate as the copter rocked a bit in its stationary position… "Surely even soulless she'd sense the worthlessness of his offers…And self-interest would keep her from wishing to die at this time…"

"This mission doesn't require your complete understanding, Wyndham-Price…It requires your complete obedience to the mission directives…!" Giles, voice a bit harsh even with the required shouting over the engine noise… "Are we quite clear on that?..."

"Yes, sir!..." Wesley, flatly…

"All right…!...Check your equipment!…Remember to stay in touch by cell or satellite phone at all times…Rendezvous at the designated coordinates…Do not engage the Slayer or any creatures or humans on your own…!...Good luck!..." Giles addressed the group, turning at end to press intercom to pilot… "Go in!..."

The copter moved on, crossing the Sunnydale town line…

Just outside the Bank of Sunnydale's looted (by several top-level employees) vault…Now closed and retime set to open in ten hours…William having confirmed from a vamped assistant manager previously at Willie's that there'd be no problem with air…And gotten a detailed set of instructions as to how to reset the timer…Having assumed beforehand he might need a place to "deposit" Buffy safely…

"Hello, Dru?..." William spoke into his cell… "We've got Buffy secured at the Sunnydale Bank…She should be all right for a bit…No, I opted for plan B…I didn't think we could risk letting her have freedom of movement under the influence…She was plotting to cut a deal with D'Hoffryn or anyone on the Evil team to help me…" he paused…Willow waiting patiently…

"Yeah…" wan smile… "A very good wife, thanks Dru…That's kind of you…"

"Tales of D'Hoffryn…"

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, .com...

Summary: While saddled with the job of tending the discombobulated First Evil, the Lord of all Things Vengeful tells a few tales of his (well, his people's) exploits with some old friends…

"Sunset…"

Part X…

"Ronson?..." Wesley called, harsh whisper…Pulling in his collapsed chute… "Here, sir!..." careful hiss…"

Ronson, short, dark-haired in flight suit, night goggles, pulling at chute…

"Anyone else about?..."

"I haven't seen anyone…We drifted a bit from the others, I think, Mr. Wyndham-Price…"

Crack of shot…

"What was that?..." Wesley looked over…

"Sounded like firecrackers or a gunshot, sir…"

Wesley felt a sudden vibration on his radio…Pulling it to ear… "Help!...Any personnel!…Shot!...No!..." harsh female cry…Sound of shot on phone, echoed in the distance…

"Miss Collins?!..." Wesley cried… No response…Ronsom holding his own phone now…

"Sir?..." he eyed his team leader…

"Head toward the sound, but for God's sake keep low and quiet!..." Wesley urged…Waving Ronson along…

"Mr. Giles…?" he tried Giles' number now…

"Wyndham-Price?..." Giles' voice…

"Sir…Ronson and I have made contact, we're in the upper northeast quadrant of the drop zone…A bit off the mark…"

"All right, make you way to the rendezvous site…So far five of us are accounted for…We'll meet with you there…"

"Sir, Miss Collins may be down…She was calling, we heard shooting…"

"Yes, I heard her call…Proceed to the rendezvous, we'll see if there's anything to be done for her later…"

"Sir?...We're in range of her location…"

"Wesley…I need as many of us alive as possible in position immediately…Proceed to the rendezvous…That's an order, Wyndham-Price…"

"Sir…" he closed the phone…

Ronson eyeing him…

"Our orders are to proceed to the rendezvous…We will do so…" Wesley nodded grimly…

"Sir, Miss Collins…She might be wounded…"

"We will proceed to the rendezvous…By that way…" Wesley pointed…In the direction of the shooting…

"Sir?...That's…"

"I consider it the safest way due to traffic obstacles and the likelihood of creatures in ambush along other routes…Do you question my orders, Mr. Ronson?..."

"No, sir…" Ronson, faint smile… "I quite concur…"

"Let's lose these chutes and be about it…"

"Now look, sweetheart…" vampiress Angela, commander of "Team Three" sighed at the squirming teenaged girl in her fellow teammate's grip… "No one's gonna hurt you…But we're not going to let you play target practice with those other kids…"

"F-ing bitch!..." howl, twisting… "I'm the Mayor's daughter!...I'll have you in jail for the rest of your life!…"

"That would be a long time, honey…" Angela nodded… "But I want you to calm down and then I'll tell you where there's some really neat goodies no one else has got to yet…"

"Mr. Giles?..." a blonde, bespectacled woman in flight suit and goggles, armed with small crossbow, automatic pistol strapped to side, hissed to a Giles similarly outfitted but holding cross in one hand, crossbow hanging on opposite shoulder…Both watching the scene from behind an iron fence… "The creature is going to take that girl…Should I?..."

"No…" Giles shook his head… "We can't risk detection…Lets be off…"

"Sir…"

"Either William the Bloody's fanciful tale of souled vampires is true and they are simply helping that child as the female claims or not…In either case we can't help her…We're lucky our charms are working and they haven't detected us as yet…Lets continue…Left…" he gestured to the left…Moving off, two others concealed behind him following, as did the woman after a moment's hesitation…

They hurried across the dark street… Giles rushing for the shelter of an alleyway… "Goddamn you!..." Harsh whisper to the woman just following the slower of the two men… "Move!...These creatures may not be able to sense our souls but they're still expect night trackers and keenly sensitive to any movement…"

He pulled out cell phone… "Johannes?...Have you reached the rendezvous point?..."

"Maxwell and I are here, sir…" Johannes' reply… "But the site is heavily occupied by humans, all acting very strangely…"

"Not demonic?...Vampiral?..." Giles asked…

"Not a trace, sir…But there's definitely indications of soul removal…And they seem extremely violent and aggressive…Yet no signs of demonic occupation/possession…"

"All right, maintain your position, avoid confrontation, we're on our way…Wyndham-Price's team is coming your way as well…But be sure to check them and us before contact…If you're detected, try to retreat and contact us asap…"

"Yes, sir…"

He closed phone and eyed the other three…

"All right, seven of eleven accounted for…We must assume the others are either incapacitated or unable to communicate and will join us…The rendezvous site is heavily occupied by humans who appear to be acting strangely, possibly soulless or otherwise occultly affected…"

"So William the Bloody may be telling us the truth…" the woman noted…

"Mrs. Caldwell, we've no time to waste considering the trustworthiness of a killer vampire…Our mission is to extract the Slayer intact if she is still alive…However we can if not…Now, ready yourselves and again, remember these creatures are deadly and any word to the contrary is to be ignored…This is no time to trust to the power of compassion and trust…Now, on my mark, move!...Go!..." he raced down the street, keeping to the edges of fences and buildings, the others following…

"Dead?..."Wesley eyed the body before him, Ronson kneeling by her, feeling for a pulse…

"Afraid so, sir…And definitely not a vampiral attack…She was shot through the heart and neck…Looks like they robbed her of her gear and personals…"

"A robbery?..." Wesley shook his head…

Only in America, in the midst of the greatest concentration of occult power and its Undead spawn could one expect to find such a senseless death…

"Rather standard issue firearm I'd say…" Ronson eyed the wounds… "In fact, while I can't be sure, this is very likely police ordinance…"

"Shot by a policeman?..." Wesley stared…

"Not able to be definite, sir…But it does look rather…Sir!..." Ronson backed away…Pulling at Wes' arm…

Two…He mouthed to Wes as they stood in the darkness of the building corner they'd raced for at Ronson's urging…

"Police…" he whispered…Peering down the street…Wesley adjusting his goggle for magnification…

Yes…Two policemen, guns out…And what looked like bags of…Booty?...On their shoulders…Moving down the wide street…About two blocks from the shopping center rendezvous point and five from the Slayer's home…

Wesley focused as one raised gun and began shooting…No warning…

A howl of pain…

"Sir?..."

"Nothing we can do Ronson…If they are soulless or deranged in some other way, we aren't going to stop them and if they're merely shooting looters…"

"Miss Collins wasn't a looter, sir…" grimly…

"I doubt it would matter to them but there's nothing we can do right now except try and get to the rendezvous point…"

"Sir!...Activity…" Ronson held up a glowing crucifix…Specially blessed and charmed to detect vampiral presence…"

"Bow and cross!...Stand ready!..." Wesley hissed…

"Sir!..." Ronson…

Wesley…Whirling to face…

"You gentlemen are from the Council?..." Drusilla asked, anxiously…Holding Ronson's fired, caught arrow in one hand…"Thank Heaven you're here…" she gave them a gentle smile…Her other hand raised in peaceful gesture…


End file.
